| By --bianca,on 16-May-2012 at 2:42 pm Too. My HEART is broken,too. Hang with me a minute. I was supposed to have surgery today. I did all the prep (and you don’t want the gross details). I ate the clear liquids,took the special showers,and arrived on time if a little nervous. Yesterday I’d had an EKG as part of the documentation my anesthesiologist would need. It took 4 people to draw my blood–I really do have tiny,elusive veins. They all loved my good attitude though. And the anesthesiologist,Dr. Crooks,arrived. BTW both he and Dr Veljovich are young and handsome and very nice. He looked over my stuff and then asked me some questions about chest pain (no),how far can you walk (I’m really out of shape),and then he left saying he’d be right back. I’m all cozy on the gurney,legs wrapped up,pillow,IV,ugly hair net…basically ready to go. Not. The news was not good. My EKG showed a marked anomaly,something that could be serious:I don’t know cardiac-talk. The only one I understood was you may have had a silent heart attack. Or reduced blood flow,muscle weakening…yadda. Not good. My doctors found a couple of cardiologists and another anesthesiologist and sadly,the opinion about my EKG was unanimous. I needed a complete cardiac workup before surgery. It’s scheduled for Tuesday. One of the cardiologists really took charge of it which was very gratifying. Now I’ll add a Dr. Peterson to my list. And the surgery? They’re looking for a time/location. Hopefully within 2 weeks. After all,cancer does grow so waiting isn’t good. I’m super worried about this. I’m sure it will force me to take better care of myself in the long term,though. So let’s think of that bright side and if you have any prayers left–send them to my heart. Oh,and my blood was damaged in that first blood draw,so they tried 3 more sites before getting a good draw. And my potassium is perfectly normal,thank you. By --bianca,on 08-May-2012 at 11:43 am Met my oncologist today and WOOSH! I have a date for my hysterectomy. It all went very efficiently. Dr. Veljovich is very optimistic about my case. Unless he’s wrong,all I will need is to have my uterus,fallopian tubes,ovaries,and cervix removed–not even any radiation or chemo. The cancer’s stage will be determined during the operation and that will determine how many lymph nodes will be removed–the only real variable at that time. The cool thing is I’ll be having surgery performed using the daVinci robot so it will be a minimally invasive procedure with only one night in the hospital and much quicker recovery than traditional surgery. Dr. Veljovich is very enthusiastic about this technology which enables him to see extremely well and perform very delicate procedures. My procedure will be next Wednesday,just 8 days from now! It will be at the newest hospital in the area,Swedish Hospital in Issaquah,which is a lovely place. Follow up will be 2 weeks after that. If everything goes perfectly,I’ll be pretty much done with this by the end of this month (except for longer-term followups). Oh,a tidbit. I’ll be participating in a study to see if sentinel lymph nodes for the uterus can be identified using a dye. The major complication of this will be bright green poop for a few days LOL. By --bianca,on 02-May-2012 at 2:50 pm My diagnosis is in,it’s a slow-growing endometrial cancer which should be very treatable with surgery. My doctor even made an appointment with a gynecological oncologist —so next Tuesday I’ll meet him and I hope find out how much longer I have to wait. The stage of the cancer isn’t known until then but there were still some pre-cancerous cells so my doctor thinks it was caught early. My CA 125 reading was slightly elevated so my ovary will also have to be biopsied but it’s rare to have two cancers at the same time so I’m sticking with this one  Best case? If it really hasn’t spread I *might* not need any radiation or chemotherapy. Put your prayers there! Oh and this oncologist is a specialist in robotic surgery,I thought my CMU friends would like that.  By --bianca,on 25-Apr-2012 at 8:14 pm There’s an old joke in which the doctor says,“I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is you’re not a hypochondriac.” The bad news is that endometrial cancer may well be my diagnosis. My endometrium (lining of the uterus) is 20 mm thick when 4 is considered normal. Even my (usually nothing) ovarian cysts aren’t typical. Sooo,I had a biopsy today. The doctor’s first reaction? “Wow,you really ARE bleeding!”(Funny,I thought it was not much. I was wrong.) I’ll find out the results by Tuesday and the next step will be surgery either a further biopsy or complete hysterectomy depending on the biopsy results. I also have to get a blood test for a cancer marker. Neato. In the good news category,the doctor says that this type of cancer is very successfully treated,with excellent survival rates. Sooooo…can’t wait to find out what the next steps are. By --bianca,on 05-Apr-2012 at 3:49 pm From twitter:Question from David today —> How would you explain to someone if they asked “How do you find peace in a crazy world?”(ks) First,you can’t consider all the craziness in the world your responsibility. So often when I am upset about something,it is because I’m not in control of it. Second,breathe. This is something I don’t do enough,but if I took some calming breaths before reacting more,I would be in a much better place. Third,have a happy place in your own mind or a physical place. This can be a place where you breathe,pray,meditate,gaze on nature,or whatever. Just leave it all behind you. There are more By --bianca,on 03-Apr-2012 at 5:03 pm No tears today. No smiles but no tears. By --bianca,on 02-Apr-2012 at 8:21 pm A few years ago,the boyfriend of a friend caused a horrible accident. He was a good man,he had no ill intent,but because of him a young woman was brain dead. The family,understanding that it was an accident,did not press charges. But still he felt terrible. He needed to work through that grief. My friend,his girlfriend kept telling him he had done nothing wrong and he kept saying,no,I killed that girl. I told my friend at the time that it was not supporting him to deny that what had happened was terrible,that he was–completely without intention–at fault. That what he needed was for her to say,I see what happened and it was wrong. The family has forgiven you,I have forgiven you,how I can I help you forgive yourself? That’s a good metaphor for what I’m going through right now. | Just for grinsSome digiscrapping sites |
