Tomorrow we should have the results of both the needle biopsy and the PET scan. Should be a quiet day at work.
What's this? I've got four missed calls between my cell phone and work phone. That will teach me to attend a 30-minute meeting.
It's Dr. Wendy? Something about messing up the specimen from the needle biopsy last Friday. They sent it through the flow process, which involves sending it to a lab in Murray and running a bunch of tests on it to see what grows or develops. That's exactly what she wanted to prevent. We just need a comparison between the last sample they took about two and a half years ago and last Friday's. If the cells look the same, we know exactly what we're dealing with.
They tried to retrieve the specimen and deliver it back to UVRMC for the comparison, but now the samples are too destroyed from the flow process to effectively read. Now what?
She gives me her own cell number, with a promise to destroy the number.
She's talked to a surgeon, Dr. Jennifer, who has agreed to see me TODAY for surgery TOMORROW to remove part or all of one of the enlarged lymph nodes. I'm to call her office for a time and call Dr. Wendy back with the new plan.
What? Surgery tomorrow? Meet with the surgeon today? No chance of a diagnosis with the needle biopsy? Yep, I got that right.
Call the surgeon's office at 11:30. They want me there at noon. That's not going to work. Can we shoot for 1-ish instead?
Dale, how fast can you come to downtown Salt Lake and pick me up and take me back down to American Fork? You're on your way? Great.
Sorry, work. You're going to have to wait. There are scary things afoot, and I wanted it all taken care of yesterday.
Surgeon is absolutely great. Thinks the same way I do. No need to do unconsciousness or sedation if we don't need to. Let's just try a local. Should be an easy, 15-minute procedure.
I wasn't planning on surgery tomorrow, but at least we have a plan that is being quickly expedited.
Run over to the AF Hospital for precursory blood work (that's four blood draws/IVs started in 9 days--for those of us who are counting) and a quick EKG. Okay, I think I'm ready for whatever tomorrow brings.
Dale! Don't you think we should do something really amazing and fun tonight? Why's that? Because, in all likelihood, our lives will change forever tomorrow, when I go from being a two-time Hodgkins survivor to being a three-time Hodgkins survivor. Nothing we can think of seems momentous enough so we stay home and play Dr. Mario on our old Nintendo 64 console.
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