Driving West on I-80 early this morning was a frosty ride. The farmers are finally starting to get the corn out of the fields. Direct result of the combines in the fields, deer are moving everywhere. We saw herds in the picked fields, running herds and road kill. Amazing what a semi does to a big deer. I wish there was another solution, but it appears that the deer have had a good year. There are LOTS of ‘em.

The Door Guru is scheduled for a biopsy of something that seems to be growing on his first true vocal cord. This morning, November 5, is the day. The test will take place at the Iowa City Veterans hospital.

We are familiar with the ENT (ear, nose and throat) department; DG had a squamous cell carcinoma removed from this same vocal cord in middle May of this year. The good Drs. here have been scoping DG once a month since May and we are pretty sure that this is a re-occurrence of the SCC - also called smoker’s cancer. It looks like this:

I know - yuck.  Can ya see it?  It is that white spec on the left side of this picture.  The picture is kinda gross, but it's the real thing.  They take these pix with a teeny tiny camera on the end of a long skinny gizmo.  Keep in mind that this was the second cancer and was pretty tiny. It was probably not 20% the size of my little fingernail and I don’t have long nails or giant fingers. In the photo, you can kind of see the dent in that vocal cord where the first tumor was removed.

The personnel at the VA Med Center here are just phenomenal. Perhaps because we arrive early in the morning, everybody is pleasant and efficient. The phlebotomist chatted w/ DG about waterfowl hunting in MN as well as locally and his nurse’s hubby hunts the ducks & geese here too. They get 3 iv’s hung and the needle in his arm almost without his notice. I did see a tiny flinch. (DG HATES needles.) What is it about guys, they all hate to put gowns over skin? Yes, you have to take ALL your clothes off. I suppose now is not the time for me to be snickering, but what the heck. Surgery is scheduled for 10:45. I will probably head out while he is in surgery. The Dr. has been in and double checked with DG and reaffirms that if they can get it all, they will. We will talk to him after surgery.