Surgery Ahead, Beauty Right Here

Greetings from Ljubljana, Slovenia. This is my first time visiting this country, and I am loving its beauty. Since I grew up in Colorado, seeing mountains brings me so much joy. It has been wonderful to see the Julian Alps. After all the medical crap and work, it has been nice to take a mini-vacation and explore a bit.


Lake Bled
 

Tomorrow, I will be traveling to Zagreb, Croatia, where the conference is. While I am excited to see my colleagues again, I am dreading the idea of giving a presentation this coming Saturday. I will get it done. I do love giving presentations, but with all that is going on, I just want to chill out and listen. 

 

Last night, I got a message about the renal ultrasound I had last Friday. My tumor has grown a bit between the May 1 CT scan and the September 4 renal ultrasound. I guess it is a good thing I have surgery coming up three weeks from today to get it out. 


Yesterday, I visited Postojna Cave. It was gigantic. I really enjoyed touring the cave by train and on foot. The guide explained that each formation in the cave grows one centimeter every 100 years. If we touched anything, it would stunt the growth for a long time. I thought to myself that it would be nice if tumors worked that way as well.


Inside the Postojna Cave

As the surgery date is approaching closer, I am trying to hold on to the beauty around me and let this little corner of Slovenia remind me that there is still so much to notice, even in the middle of everything else. 

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