A girl just can't have too many talismans

Ok - today is the day I get my final pathology report. I probably could've bugged the doctors to give me some hint of it yesterday or even Monday, but I was too busy bugging them for meds and holding court with lovely and generous visitors.

Plus, I didn't want to know yet. Why find out over the phone after multiple times on hold w/o the actual paperwork in hand? If it was the good news we are expecting - then hurrah! - it's confirmed, need to discuss next steps in person anyway. If it was bad news that we are aware is still possible - then there wasn't anything else we could do about it between Monday and Wednesday except feel anxious and miserable. So, decision was made to take things in their own good time. With that in mind, I want to put some things out there while I'm still riding this crest of optimism.

Note: This is a bit long-ish, so save it for later, or if you don't have the bandwidth, don't be shy about skipping it.

(cue "Would You Lay With Me in a Field of Stone" perferably by David Allen Coe, but Willie Nelson'll do in a pinch)

I just received a Chinese Stone from my cousin, Connie, in New Jersey. It is smooth and grey with a pictogram of a person standing with arms outstretched in a field of tall grass (a place of wilderness and wild animals according to the attached note), representing courage, strength and confidence. Although Connie is of the Italian-raised-Roman-Catholic persuasion, this stone proves that the eventual take-over of the United States by China will begin in Jersey, quite possibly Tom's River (as opposed to the Russian take-over who we all know almost took place on Cape Cod).

When it arrived, I placed it carefully near two other rocks that I carried with me to the hospital:

A small, shiny Tibetan Healing Crystal sent from my friend Ophelia (not Italian - at least not openly, but now suggesting a Chinese take-over on left coast s well). Anyway, this is a Polished Smokey Quartz Egg.: Tibetan Quartz Crystals gather, hold and release a very high energy and tend to contain a very powerful "OM" vibration. According to O, these are excellent crystals for intense work on mental, personal, emotional, and spiritual levels.

The other rock looks like a potato - pretty much a plain ol' Idaho russet-type, none of those red, blue and black-skinned new-age farmers market varieties. This "good luck" rock belonged to my friend Gretta's mother, which she loaned to me when I gave birth to Marc 14 years ago. Sally has since passed away, but the Potato Rock lives on and is shared by close family and friends in crisis. It arrived, shipped by Gretta in New York, the day before my surgery.

Needless to say, the good doctors and nurses at St. Joseph's were a bit perplexed as they wheeled me on my gurney past crucifixed-afixed hallways, one hand gripping a little crysta, the other - a potato, with my obvious-to-anyone-Jewish-non-believer husband, tears streaming down his cheeks, breathlessly trying to keep up with them as they sped to the OR (which was curious in itself as this was not emergency surgery).

Needless to say - everything seems to have worked - the crystal, the potato rock, the crucifixes, my husband's tears (prayers), the doctors and nurses (thank god!) and when I got home a healthy helping of Mother Gazzale's chicken soup sent all the way from Zabars in New Yawk. Well worth skipping out of St. Joes and missing their Santa Maria Tri-Tip!

The Potato Rock has its own story and deserves its own post which will be next. But here is a footnote to illustrate it's remarkable healing power.

The first few days home from hospital, I experienced remarkable nausea in the morning caused by multiple meds (swear I'm not pregnant). On one of these ocassions, my concerned son, Marc noticed the Potaoto Rock on a nearby nightstand, made a dive for it, shoved it gingerly into my palm and closed my fingers over it- this, after 14 years . . . of course, all bad symptoms of anything disappeared.

A girl just can't have too many talismans

So - after no posts (I've had a LOT of visitors), there is now a backlog (backwash?) and I need to occupy myself while waiting for the good word.

Love and thanks to all.
amp