Snickers came in the early morning for a hug. Up and out for CT guided needle biopsy procedure today. Arrived at 8:30 on schedule. I was ill prepared and suffered from severe stomach and back pain. After check in, sign again the privacy agreement, I think that is four for this group alone, and Nurse Inger led me gently down to the ‘holding room’. Vanessa helped me change into the backless wonder gown. Inger again went through the record keeping chores and briefing. Her attentiveness was exemplary. With Wife, one Daughter and dear Sister saying a prayer for all of us and my caregivers, away I went for the next procedure in the process. I laid in the CT scanner for over an hour, the relax agents doing nothing for my excruciating back ache. Into the hoop with a jolt and back out again, jarred to the teeth as the table was adjusted to just the right spot for the picture. With all of this technology one would think they could put a cushion on the table so motions were smooth and precise. In the end, a remarkable feat I thought, the Ologist skillfully probed and moved a fine needle to a node smaller than 1/8” in diameter and buried in a mass of structures, vessels, bone and fat, drawing cells from it to be cultured to determine if they are cancer cells. It took about an hour, I tried to levitate, which helped a couple of times. My arms were crossed in front of me and held to my chest with a wide restraining belt pulled tight. As the scanner did its thing, the room filled with the sound of a chiller not very well sound insulated. Through the constant racket voices could be heard. How many, 3, no 5, no Inger says 7, with the pathologist in the room, so we only do this once. Amazing customer service that I knew was possible everywhere, but so rarely found. Inger’s ever calming instructions breathe in through nose, out through mouth, and her admonishment repeatedly to not move. Never again will I go off the pain medicine prescribed for me out of some imaginary concern I decide I have.
Oh, and green beans and potatoes stew the night before might be something else I leave off of my pre surgery regimen. My vocal expressions of pain, which do not help anyone, brought my youngest to tears and me too.
When you have cancer, sometimes you just have to cry. And it was over, samples to process, and takes a couple of days, up to us to make our appointment with our oncologist.
Just before Van and Jocey came in with my phone to call Rex, Rex peaked in the door, grinning like a Cheshire cat. He brought his imaginary friend Carl and we were all thoroughly entertained. At the end of the day he passed us on the I465 heading home and I couldn’t help a tear escaping. I have always missed my Brothers, even growing up our age differences and life styles set us apart from each other. In another life years ago we all lived close together, but with work, families and individual schedules I still did not get to see a lot of them. I think my young Wife at that time had a limit to how much she could take in a given time frame as well, but perhaps I dreamed that part. Coming closer together is a positive unintended consequence of the disease. In many cultures and nationalities families are not so fractured. In my old age I appreciate the importance of Family and the unbreakable blood bond that exists within.
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