Thursday, February 02, 2006
Elephants on the Roof and the Cancer Merry- go- round
I thought I was pretty much out of the woods when coming out of surgery they told me there had not been cancer in the lymph nodes. As it turns out an addendum to the original pathology report says there is malignant cancer cells in the lymph nodes they took.
They do something now days called centinel nodes where they inject dye and radioactive material into the breast and then follow it to the first lymph nodes and do a biopsy on them, then leave the rest of the nodes if they do not find any cancer there. You can imagine that the term disappointment hardly covers my feelings about the news that this addendum contradicted the good news originally given me about my cancer.
The oncologist was rather scary but not for the reasons one might expect. In addition to a coffee mug with dopey of the 7 dwarfs he had in excess of 20 sponge bob square pants toys strew about his office and desk. When I asked him about this, his response was that he was a fan I could only reply that I had rather hoped that his reason had been that he treated a lot of children patients. He has no children patients.
This vist sounded rather like a bad joke, "the tumor tested estrogen receptor positive"
"so that's bad... " "no that's good as they recur far less often. It also tested progesterone negative."
"so that's bad..." "no that's good as those that test positive tend to be faster growing and larger"
You get the picture here. Meanwhile back at the ranch.... there were elephants on the roof. Or at least that is what my dog thought. In actuality the roofers where ripping off the old roof in preparation for the new roof. She also decided the elephants on the roof had abducted me and was hell bent on finding me. So much so that 8 adult males and my father could not stop her forcing her way through gates to conduct her own search for me.
All this was yesterday. Today the elephants are on the roof again.. with saws and hammers and debris raining down on my head as I type this. Indeed, they do rather sound like elephants on the roof.. but once they are done I will no longer have to pitch a tent on top of my bed every time it rains.
I thought I was pretty much out of the woods when coming out of surgery they told me there had not been cancer in the lymph nodes. As it turns out an addendum to the original pathology report says there is malignant cancer cells in the lymph nodes they took.
They do something now days called centinel nodes where they inject dye and radioactive material into the breast and then follow it to the first lymph nodes and do a biopsy on them, then leave the rest of the nodes if they do not find any cancer there. You can imagine that the term disappointment hardly covers my feelings about the news that this addendum contradicted the good news originally given me about my cancer.
The oncologist was rather scary but not for the reasons one might expect. In addition to a coffee mug with dopey of the 7 dwarfs he had in excess of 20 sponge bob square pants toys strew about his office and desk. When I asked him about this, his response was that he was a fan I could only reply that I had rather hoped that his reason had been that he treated a lot of children patients. He has no children patients.
This vist sounded rather like a bad joke, "the tumor tested estrogen receptor positive"
"so that's bad... " "no that's good as they recur far less often. It also tested progesterone negative."
"so that's bad..." "no that's good as those that test positive tend to be faster growing and larger"
You get the picture here. Meanwhile back at the ranch.... there were elephants on the roof. Or at least that is what my dog thought. In actuality the roofers where ripping off the old roof in preparation for the new roof. She also decided the elephants on the roof had abducted me and was hell bent on finding me. So much so that 8 adult males and my father could not stop her forcing her way through gates to conduct her own search for me.
All this was yesterday. Today the elephants are on the roof again.. with saws and hammers and debris raining down on my head as I type this. Indeed, they do rather sound like elephants on the roof.. but once they are done I will no longer have to pitch a tent on top of my bed every time it rains.
