Cancer Journal #45 August 12

 I am waiting at Mayo Clinic for multiple testing today. It has been a while and I was greeted with warm affection by the reception lady.  That was nice.  Another ceiling light bulb has gone out in the waiting room but it is still plenty light in there.  (See blog #21)  A CT scan and a nuclear medicine bone scan is set for today.  There are two different tracks I am on in preparation; radioactive stuff injected into my system for the bone scan and I'm drinking a barium solution for the CT scan.  I don't know what one test tells that the other doesn't but I don't need to know--at least not right now.  I'll be interested in knowing what's going on in my bones.  In November, I had lit up places all over indicating tumor locations.  I'm hoping/(for a whole lot more dark.  I don't know if lit up means an active tumor or if it could include a dormant tumor that could start up again given the right conditions.  I have a meeting with my oncologist next week and will have to go in with a list of questions.


Update:  It's a couple days later and the test results are posted on my patient portal.  Don't know a whole lot more than I did before.  The CT scan reveals absolutely nothing to me.  The guy interpreting it made some kind of negative sounds which I didn't see and then he said I was constipated which I don't know that I was and, more to the point, really had nothing to do with anything.  He also thought I had mild emphysema which I (and my fitness trainer) don't think is true and is again unrelated to cancer.  So, heck with him.

The bone scan did show less pronounced spots than in November although they are still there.  That was also the conclusion of the guy reading the scans.  But I will want to know what my oncologist has to say about all this.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cancer Journal #3 Dec 7

         It’s VIP parking at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center with parking slots a few steps from the door. Speaks more to our presumed physical condition than our importance I suppose but it’s handy, especially if I am running late. The accommodation is not meant for me, at least not right now. In fact, I feel great. I’d never know there was anything wrong with me if they hadn’t told me. Still, the parking is handy.       Inside, people in the waiting room are not doing great. Mostly they are old. A few young ones that I really feel bad for. A woman in her 20s with a slow, unsteady gait and not much light in her eyes. I hope her condition is curable and that this will just be a bad episode in a fully lived life.       I don’t visit with those who are waiting although that would be my natural tendency. We are all masked and social distanced which inhibits conversation. And then, talk loud enough to be heard w...
Read more

Cancer Journal #10 Jan 7

I haven’t said much about the Lord in these blogs. I will change that.              I suppose there are those who, upon getting a diagnosis of aggressive stage four cancer, would be disappointed and indignant. “How could He let this happen? Does He care? Is He even there?” I have not reacted that way, especially not since my recent good numbers but before that too. Let me explain. This is not the place where things are right. I’m expecting such a place but not yet. The rules of the game, so to speak, are that things go wrong. There are disappointments, unfulfilled hopes, wounds to our body and psyche. To complain about that is like complaining that there are 24, not 20, hours in a day.             Terrible things happen to people. In war zones, babies are killed in mother’s arms, parents are killed in front of five year old’s eyes. Terrible things happen in this country now, not so dramatic pe...
Read more

Writing/Cancer Journal #109

  Charlie Schaefer September, 2024 What is Sin? Failure to brush my teeth twice daily? Not staying hydrated with at least 80 ounces of fluid each day?  Failure to check in on a relative whose health is failing but is also a bore?   Getting warm with that one. Dumping oil from an oil change out in the woods?   That’s a bad one which I would never do. Especially since I don’t change my own oil.   The Old Testament prescription for sin–sacrifice of a pigeon, a sheep, a bullock- hardly seems as though it would do the trick, bring the ledger to balance.  The Catholic confessional followed by some Our Fathers and some Hail Marys seems better.  Confession, if done honestly, requires the dark thing be pulled out of the pocket and examined.   And the Our Fathers, Hail Marys could be a source of pleasure  if the obligation element is minimized.  Put your mind in a good place. But I am skirting around the edges, leaving the ugl...
Read more