There is Good News!!! There is Good News!!! There is Good News!!!
The results of the bone scan and CAT scan came back clean!! The biopsy of the ulcer was also cancer free! When I went to PT, my nerve issue thingy is way better!
I am so Happy!!!!
Hi all Part II
Hi all,
I reread my last post and just want to clarify that I do not have the scan results. I meant to say that having the scans was ok. Sorry for any confusion.
Airing out the pits
Until today, the right arm had never* been above the head. The surgeon said it was okay so that’s almost all she does. Loretta is thrilled. I’m a little embarrassed. She was quite the sight on the boat ride home. *After surgery, that is.
Hi all!
Hi all!
Just thought I would write a bit about today. I know some of you are very upset about the additional surgery. But, it was always a possibility because the margins did not meet the acceptable minimum. I would rather have more taken than not enough. I will have the surgery a few weeks after I finish chemo and before I start radiation.
Having the scans themselves were ok. We don’t have the results yet. I had an IV that was used to inject the radioactive tracer used in the bone scan. They also used the IV to inject the contrast for the CAT scan. (I still consider myself more of a dog person,) I did have to drink a liter of mostly water stuff. It really tasted like water. Since I was not able to eat or drink for a while, it all went down just fine. I did have to pee a million times (maybe that was TMI?) The weird thing about it all is that I am radioactive for the next 48 hours. I have a piece of paper to carry around with me in case I set off alarms or whatever.
Thank you all so very much for your comments! While I haven’t answered them I have read and love each and every one.
But wait, there’s more….
We had a nice chat with the surgeon. She explained the pathology report from all the stuff they took out during the surgery. It was all the same stuff that she had explained to Loretta over the phone. The new part was that they had had a conference (“they” are all the doctors of various specialties) and they decided that some more needed to come out. Yeah haw! More surgery. The best part of this otherwise bad news is that it will be after she is allowed to recover from the chemo – whenever that is. This one should also be much less invasive and not involve a drain, etc.
Then there is the weird thing going on with her skin (see Vanna, I’d like to buy a vowel). The surgeon, being a specialist in cancer, was concerned that maybe it was cancer exhibiting itself in very strange ways. It is very unlikely, but, since the cancer was found in the skin, it concerned her. Enough that she wanted some. So, using the most expensive hole punch known to man, she got another piece of Loretta and sent it off to the lab. We should have results from that tomorrow or Wednesday.
Next are the scans (bone and cat) with results for those ready on Wednesday when we meet with the oncologist.
Let the drinking begin!
Not that kind of drinking. Not as much fun and MUCH more expensive. She has to drink a liter of this contrast material. It is clear and tasteless. (Like me except for the clear part.)
Scanday Morning
On the way to have some scans (looking for bones and cats — I could have told them she has bones and no cats on the phone! — and a chat with a doctor or three. Exciting updates all day (I’m just going to be sitting there)!
Vanna, I’d like to buy a vowel.
My BooBooBooB has a booboo. I am calling it my BooBooBooBBooBoo. Poo! As you can see, I bought an “O”. Yes I actually have a spot that has decided to show its ugly head. The other night I said “Hey Scott, come and look at this.” (He is my nurse after all.) “Hmmmmm looks like a spot” So we decided to leave it alone and look at it in the morning.
Morning comes and you guessed it, the spot did not disappear. So I called the surgeon and BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH go see my primary care physician, BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH, find an appointment buddy, BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH, you have a skin ulcer, BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH……….Didn’t think you needed to hear the boring details. I have a skin ulcer. It is on the right breast which is now definitely not my favorite of the two. We are not sure how it formed, but needs to be treated with basic wound care, Bacitracin and bandages. Yucky.
Scott comes home from work and I say, “Hey honey! Guess what you get to do! Along with stripping the drain tube and measuring the output you get to take care of my skin ulcer.” I don’t think the last part of the previous statement was exactly what he had in mind when I said the whole hey honey, guess what you get to do part.
As I am being ministered to, I looked at Scott and said “You know, some couples just have drinks before dinner.”
Some fun jokes
Today I will share with you some of the jokes I have heard over the last week. They have all made me laugh. Here it goes:
What do Billy the Kid and Winnie the Pooh have in common? A middle name.
Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the body of Marco Polo. It was found at the bottom of a swimming pool…………..blindfolded.
A bear walks into a bar and says “give me a gin and………………….tonic
What do you call a guy who never farts in public? A private tutor.
What do you get when you cross a fish with an elephant? Swimming trunks……..
Why did the cookie go to the hospital? Because he felt “crummy”!!!
That should be enough for today. Will post more later. I hope each and everyone one of you have a day filled with laughter!
Cancer Bingo – by David Stanton
You know, normally when you or you’re loved one gets a cancer diagnosis you can turn some of the activities that aren’t so fun into ones that are. Bingo is a perfect example. You have a bunch of procedures or diagnoses which are kept on a sheet in a random order and when you get one or do something like “group breast exam” you get to take your dorky looking magic marker for grownups and place with great gusto a splotch on your sheet. See? Something fun to do with cancer. Normally you can start small, say with “first mammogram” or “headache”. Over time you realize that something bigger is going on behind the scenes of the clinical presentations. So you go to the doctor and get “the news”. Then you can go from there. You are gradually brought into the game. You begin to see that some of your splotches are going to make something of themselves and you’ll eventually win that pack of glow in the dark earrings you’ve been secretly coveting since you were ten.
But with my mom, she didn’t even have time to mark “surgery part 1” or even “the initial worry”. All of a sudden we had a Cancer Bingo Card in front of us with no warning of any kind and a bunch of splotches already filled in. Kind of like when someone decides they have to go to the bathroom and hastily puts their card in front of you with a brief “Here! Play my card for this round!” before scampering away with everyone staring after them. Then you look down and you don’t see your bingo card, you see someone else’s. It’s not your cancer, it’s something that was just thrust upon you. You don’t even know if you care enough to really make sure that the card is won. It’s not yours, right?
Eventually you start hearing horrible noises coming from the bathroom and you realize that the person is probably not coming back to the game anytime soon. Eventually you look down and see a path to Bingo victory in the splotches of the card you never wanted to have. And eventually you start playing the game as if it were your own.
“Drain fluid from an armpit.”
Check…