Guest guest Posted December 8, 2005 Report Share Posted December 8, 2005 I don't know what I do anymore. :-) I worked for the govt. when I had a major bout with skin cancer. One of the 13 sites they addressed was just above my lip. It was a recurring site of squamous cell carcinoma. I had a one inch scar diagonal on my upper lip. It was just starting to crust up 100% of the time and there was a pinpoint of blood that was always bubbling on my lip. (I just licked it off alot of the time) LOL Well, when I woke up from my surgery I had no idea that I would have been mutilated like this. He said he took as minimal as possible to get clear margins and what I had left of my top lip on the left side was NOTHING. He took the entire one inch scar plus the whole left side of my lip almost to the nostril. I was MORTIFIED to put it mildly. So, I couldn't speak correctly. I mean for almost a year you could not understand me. It was gawd awful looking and I could not even try to speak to anyone without having my hand in front of my face to block anyone from looking at it. I stayed home for 8 months and then quit my job because I wasn't going to be able to do my job. (My profession is efficiency expert/business-all aspects) I recommended changes and presented them in huge meetings to Chiefs and directors and such. I couldn't so that anymore. note: and believe me the govt. desperately needed me. LOL I finally had reconstructive surgery to build myself an upper lip and lower lip (lower being the pink part of my upper lip if that makes sense) It was another year before I could make it work even close to correctly. Minimal phonics sounded like a reject. seriously. I had to force my new parts so hard to try to make the words that talking actually wore me slick. They made me a lip part with the inside of my mouth. To this day the pink lip part peels and burns. Part of the reconstruction to even everything out he filled the rest of my lips with these radiated cells (somebody else's) :-) And my lips burn/sensation all the time. It's wild. Anyway, once I quit the govt. I had time to burn so I finished a book I had started about 8 years prior (Dancing with Cancer) and wrote another one. (Feeling the Quakes) And I started submitting business articles to mags and industry newsletters. that kinda thing. So, I was moving right along with a writing career and watching my new bone tumor and after a year & a half of no growth and pretty much thinking I was getting done with the cancer stuff. When... two babies came along- one emotionally disabled and the other completely developmentally disabled with at the time they told me probably brain damaged. They were my great neices that had been entirely abused and taken by the state. The youngest baby was not fed for most of the 4 months she was alive. My nephew asked the state to call me to take them. Once we got custody of them I spent 30-40 hours a week at Children's Mercy Hospital. They had a lot to be addressed but mostly it was for the 4 month old. She had EVERYTHING wrong with her including blind in one eye and legally blind in the other and after having been startved and only gaining 4 ounces in 4 months of life the docs put her on a 3 hour/24 hour per day feeding schedule. Soooooooo, needless to say my life changed as I could never have imagined. And my writing is so minimal now that I could starve :0) if I didn't have my hubby. We have had the girls 10 months and there's no way I could let them go anywhere else so we are still going to try to adopt them as soon as their 15 months in the system is up. I received my BC diagnosis at 9 months with the kids. eeeek! I told the surgeon this was completely INconvenient timing. Why couldn't this happen 6-8 months from now (after the court stuff is over) Soooooooo, what do I do for a living? Hmmmmm.... I dunno. :-) Actually, I have an agent for one book Feeling the Quakes but now I don't think my Dancing with Cancer book is really finished. stinks sometimes, but oh well. Dari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2005 Report Share Posted December 10, 2005 Oh wow Dari...what a life you have had. I can't wait to see your books on the market. Please keep writing when you can. I made the mistake of putting it down several years ago and I'm having trouble getting back to it. Hugs, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2005 Report Share Posted December 10, 2005 Oh wow Dari...what a life you have had. I can't wait to see your books on the market. Please keep writing when you can. I made the mistake of putting it down several years ago and I'm having trouble getting back to it. Hugs, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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