No use heading to work today. Need to be available for when Dr. Wendy's office calls.
Calls FINALLY come at 9:30 or 10. Why does that time seem so late in the day? Can I come in to the office at 11-ish? Of course. Dale, where are you? You're definitely coming with me for this one. I need you.
Hey, Dr. Wendy. We've got to stop meeting like this? Really? We couldn't have taken care of this on Wednesday? Maybe they developed overnight, but not likely. I have no idea how long those nodes have been there. Less than nine months or the last scan would have caught them though.
Okay, so we need a full-body PET and CT scan and a needle biopsy. How soon can those be scheduled? Might as well hang out in the scheduler's office to see how to expedite things. Yes, I've taken baby aspirin in the last 24-hours, but it won't affect the biopsy. I'm sure of it. I need this to happen quickly. I cannot wait five days or longer and maintain any sort of sanity. Luckily, they believe me and agree to schedule the biopsy for that afternoon.
UVRMC. Radiology department. Here we go again. This is where the needle biopsy of my stomach happened for the last diagnosis. Dr. Wendy and at least one pathologist have a direct conversation about me and what needs to happen. Hopefully, we're eliminating any chance for lab screw ups. Two hours of waiting around, and we're finally ready.
Start the IV. Second blood draw/IV starting in three days. Am I going for some kind of record?
No, don't give me any sedation. Why would I want more chemicals in my body that I don't need? No, I'm not trying to take your job, nurse Richard. I want you there. I want your drugs available, in case I'm not as brave as I think I am. Really! It gives me great comfort that you're there and I can ask if I need it. Yes, I've had an empty stomach for the past four hours.
How do we process this sample? I don't know. Oh, flow cytology? Okay. You guys know what you're doing.
Brief CT scan of the area to see what we're dealing with. Yup, at least three lumps there, all in the same lymph string, one larger than the others. I can see them, little black spots on the monitor.
Are you kidding? That was it? A brief stab and a slight, burning sensation? Yeah, definitely not worth 30 minutes to an hour of recovery time. We're good. You got four or five samples, I can see them swimming around in a cytology fluid like little red caterpillars.
I'm free to go.
PET scan on Monday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment