A long, long LONG wait today!

I had not planned on spending four hours in small rooms waiting to see doctors today.  No I had planned on arriving, giving blood, smiling and saying "how do you do?" "oh what lovely weather we are having, yes" and "great to meet you too, see you next week on the table"

Instead it was a lot of "hey how much longer do I have to wait to see Dr. so and so?" "Could you let him know I've not had anything to eat and I've been here for one, two, three hours now" 

Let's just say I could have written, directed and starred in my own Snickers Diva commercial without the Snickers.  The waiting/frustration was like being at the DMV amplified 50 times.

Cancer characters

Earlier I posted about the Vocabulary Lesson and I said my tumor was moderately differentiated.  Well there are three categories of tumors: poorly, moderately and well.

Poorly differentiated is the aggressive cancer where the cells don't resemble anything anymore... I envision it's like the Tasmanian Devil whirling about in a frenzy inside your body like he did in the Looney Tunes cartoons of my youth.

So that's what that was all about???

Who knew those night sweats and occasional fevers and weight loss were signs that the cancer was lurking in my colon?

I certainly didn't.

When my doctor friend (who is not treating me) started asking me if I had experienced those things I said "yes but..."

Vocabulary Lesson

"invasive moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma"

that's the first pathology results from the biopsy of the tumor in my colon.

Upon further internet research, it has been determined that I am the virtual daughter of Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien and that I have been the host body for the Invasion of the Body Snatchers XXXIII since Before the Land of Time.  Prognosis is relatively good that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will be arriving with their neuralizer (memory eraser) after removing the uninvited and unwanted alien parasite in my colon.  I will be forever marked, stamped and monitored by Big Brother and will have to undergo recurrent extensive examinations on a regular basis.  But I will no longer be a threat to the safety and security of our entire world.  I just wish they were sending John Cusack to save me a la 2012.

And how is your day?

July 18, 2013

I knew he wasn't going to last much longer, but it's still a shock to get that call. You know, the one that starts like this 'we're very sorry to have to tell you but your grandfather has just passed away.'

That's right. At 2 a.m. I got that call.

I am awake now. A little numb. Relieved for him that it's over now. His body was just done even though his brain wasn't. But 97 years is a good run. I hope I make it that long.

As I sit here reflecting about grandpa and why he died now instead of hanging on for another couple of months, one thought comes to mind: he died so I can focus on my own health & not have the stress of taking care of him too. You see, readers, the doctors found a tumor in my colon yesterday.  I will be having surgery in the next few weeks to remove it. I think grandpa gave me a gift in his own way. It's like he has said, "thank you for caring for me and handling my affairs. Now you just focus on doing what it takes to heal from your surgery & knock the cancer out."

I say back to him, "thank you. And I hope you are resting peacefully."

Godspeed, Grandpa.