Now my lymph node at the side of my neck is aching and although it’s not visible, I can feel faint swelling when I touch the area. I read that multiple swollen lymph nodes could be a sign of cancer but I’m virtually positive I don’t have anything dangerous. I just don’t feel like I do. It’s not what my gut instinct is saying. Plus, I don’t have other symptoms like weight loss. We’ve had rats die of cancer that quickly wasted away. My weight isn’t even slowly zigzagging downward anymore but climbing like two-tenths of a pound a day as if resetting itself. I don’t look even remotely close to weighing in the 150s so there is no dire need to lose weight anyway.

I don’t know what’s setting off my lymph nodes, but I have two in the neck, one at the side of my boob, and one in my groin that are a bit sore and swollen. Maybe some faint soreness in the one under my jaw as well. All are on my left side. I don’t know if I have some infection I don’t know about or if my body thinks there’s an infection or some kind of inflammation going on that the penicillin didn’t get rid of. I don’t have any tooth pain at the moment, and that was on the other side anyway, so I’m stumped.

My short-term memory continues to annoy me at times since it’s definitely not what it used to be. But everything I read suggests that what I’ve experienced is common with my age and not a sign of dementia. So when you get in your 50s, be prepared to walk into a room more often and forget why.

Aly’s spoke of Cam’s SIL a few times. She said her name was Summayah and that she was a doctor in obstetrics. Well, out of curiosity, I Googled various combinations of the first name along with “OB-GYN” and the state, figuring that would tell me Cam’s last name. However, nothing came up.

Yes, this is as strange as the fact that I’ve never seen a picture of Aly with any of her boyfriends. However, she definitely doesn’t seem to be making these people up. I don’t think anyone could play a pretend game like that consisting of multiple people so consistently, so detailed, so long. We’ll see if Cam happens to be unavailable if we drive through Nebraska. Yes, it would be very hard on me to lose sleep for a week but at least it would be under different circumstances than when rude assholes wake me up here and I’ll at least know what’s going on and to expect it. No guarantees yet on how we’re going out of here, though.

Back to Aly. She did say she was tired of relationships that only lasted a few months and then voila! In comes Cam who’s been around for over a year. The longest relationship she had prior to him changed as well. I still say Cam’s real. Don’t know what to make of Summayah, though.

It seemed like Tom and I were on vacation somewhere in my dreams last night. We were going down a busy road with multiple lanes when he realized we were lost. He decided to stop, get out of the car, and fish some directions out of his pocket.

I looked in the rearview window and saw a guy walking toward us and hoped he wouldn’t try to rob Tom but was ready to jump out if he did pull anything.

But then the car began to slowly lurch forward, and I quickly reached a foot over and onto the brake pedal to stop it before Tom would have to run too far to catch up.