Just wanted to drop in and wish you well brother. Hope you start to feel better soon.
Just wanted to drop in and wish you well brother. Hope you start to feel better soon.
Final PET scan results came back with something lit up behind my nose, they don't know if the cancer moved or of it was a sinus infection or something else.
Scheduled me for what was SUPPOSED TO BE an OR visit for a camera and biopsy. Get there this morning and they just shoveds a camera up my nose in the office and started trying to take a biopsy.
Now waiting on them to reschedule for a different berkeleying hospital because the stupid berkeleying radiological ENT that works at my hospital only does surgery at the hospital in downtown Pittsburgh.
Seems like something one of these useless vajajays should have known when they scheduled everything and tried to talk me into it.
Don't know why they insist on wasting everybody's time. I'm not doing another chemo, period, end of discussion. Carve this port out of my chest before I do it for you.
Frankly I don't give a berkeley what they find, although they did find "something" they want to biopsy, obviously. If they can't carve it out or hit it with radiation, they can give me a timeline or they can berkeley off.
In reply to RevRico :
That sucks. But they waste time, because it's billable. Like the stupid E36 M3 of needing a referral to see a specialist. So I have to go to the doctor and pay for the visit, just to get them to call the specialist and be able to make another appointment I have to pay for.
After an annoyingly long 2 weeks of waiting, and rescheduling appointments and making my wife take unneeded unpaid time off work, for biopsy results that, in the times before computers and interns, could be had in a day, I got my results.
Whatever is in my nose is NOT cancer.
So I guess I'm in remission. Onc won't call it officially remission until my next scan, sometime after my next appointment in February.
But for now, this chapter is closed.
Happy dance here!!
In reply to RevRico :
That's great. Happy for you.
Great to hear Rev!
I'm proud of you for enduring and kicking ass in the battle that nobody wants to face.
Amazing news, thank you for sharing!
How are you feeling? Any celebratory plans at all?
Great news so far and I know we'll all be looking for the update early next year once additional news comes in. Thanks for sharing
So stoked to hear that. I have followed your story as my mom battles CLL/SLL.
it takes a strong person to kick cancers ass. You should be proud of yourself. I know I'm just some stranger over the internet, but I truly mean it. Following your story has helped grasp what is going on with my mother. So at the bare minimum, your experience helped a stranger on the internet, so thank you!
golfduke said:Amazing news, thank you for sharing!
How are you feeling? Any celebratory plans at all?
No more celebrating for me. I celebrated the end of chemo at the end of September shortly after my PET scan but before the results came in. I wound up coming out of a blackout to a new body piercing, so dialing it back a bit these days.
Honestly, I'm more annoyed at all the messing around for the biopsy than I am relieved or anything about the results. I have just kinda been along for the ride this whole time though. Not really anything that could have prevented it, after the first couple infusions, it just became routine. It's nice that it's over, I'm happy I don't have to go to the hospital every other week and play pin cushion, but it's just already another problem I've had to deal with in a life full of them.
For the most part, since about mid September I've felt normalish for me. Still weak, but most of the numbness is gone. I'm still not sleeping for E36 M3, but that's been a forever problem. My only real complaint now is I'm itchy as hell. All of my body hair is trying to grow back at once, which leaves my arms and torso looking permanently dirty, but also highlights a starting amount of clogged or ingrown hair follicles.
They won't release my surgical biopsy results to me. This annoys me, but I also understand their reasoning of people taking things out of context. From digging through my chart notes, it seems the things in my nose is "follicular hyperplasia". From some light googling, which wound up being medical journals full of terminology I don't understand, this is either scar tissue related to lymphoma treatment, or a problem related to STDs I've never had. Eventually I'll hear from the ENT for a breakdown, but nobody seems to be concerned about it.
My, and our, big concern now is trying to recoup the lost wages from this year while our interest rates are still low. The wife lost about 6 weeks of pay this year using FMLA leave for my appointments and everything, so my focus is on trying to make that up and then some because credit card debt sucks. Insurance was great, eventually. Aside from the ENT here at the end, everybody on the hospital side was great to deal with, helpful, and informative.
I understand all too well that things could have gone a lot worse. Health wise, financially, family-y, we've come out of this pretty well. Still have the house, power, food; the cars still need work we can't really swing, but the important stuff is still there. Compared to the stuff we went through with my dad, this was essentially a minor inconvenience. I kinda feel bad saying that, but it really wasn't a world shattering problem to me like it is to people who didn't grow up watching medicine from the sidelines.
My kids school has actually done a bunch of stuff for us even though we specifically asked them not to. We know there are people in our district that need the help away more than us, but it's still great that they did the things they have. I'm certainly going to milk my friends for some Labor this spring because I need the coup we started this year finished and the deck replaced, but they work for food and beer anyway.
I'm rambling, so I'm just going to hit the post button.
Good news man, thanks for posting!
happy that you are doing better.
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