Another Rabbit Trail

I have always enjoyed the works of Joel Chandler Harris and his portrayal of the country characters of Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and others, in fact, Disney's Classic "The Song of the South" was taken from these works. A rabbit trail is a good way to describe one of the diversions in my Great Adventure, so I think I will occasionally borrow from these colorful characters in order to better explain my situation.

Having experienced the biopsies to ascertain what had raised an alarm from the PET Scan, and receiving the news that both were benign, I kinda sorta figured that we were lined out on the road to Seattle. The one spot near my pancreas turned out to be unidentifiable "debris" probably from an earlier (1990) gall bladder removal. That biopsy was interesting in that sprayed my throat with some foul tasting stuff usually used as a local anesthetic and was asked to swallow a camera/tube/needle/knife thing while also being anesthtised by a general anesthetic, interesting timing, but I guess it worked. Then  spooky part was that I could feel them moving that thing in my stomach and could hear them talking, it hurt, but I could not wake up, must have worked, after sleeping most of the day and enduring a sore throat a few days all was well. The other, a spot on my left lung was indentified as inflammation probably caused by some sort of infection. To find that out, you are placed in a CT Scan tube and the point of needle biopsy is locally anesthetised. Then they probe to get the exact point of the needle within the spot, confirming position with the CT Scan, once that point is reached, a sample is collected and examined to determine what it is.

Since that biopsy I have had a lung infection, coughing up blood to the extent that at one point a 6 hour visit to the ER was required, thankfully, that bleeding has stopped and the infection shows signs of leaving. Last Friday, a subsequent visit to an infection specialist resulted in my admittance to the hospital. After many tests and consultation with many doctors they decided that they had to have meeting concerning me, which happened on Monday of this week, so they let me go home at about 1:30PM on Saturday. Wouldn't you know it, that Saturday wa the first nice day in about 6 weeks......beautiful day!  Today I got a phone call with the results of the meeting. Tomorrow, a breathing/lung function test, Thursday a pre-op evaluation meeting, Friday, surgical removal of the spot on my lung. Looks like about hours of prep/surgery/unprep, followed by 24-36 hours in ICU and that followed by 4-6 days of in hospital recovery and that followed by 6-8 weeks of waiting to see if the spot they removed grows any wierd bugs. Well, needless to say, our BMT in Seattle has been postponed and is now targeted for mid September.....maybe.... still have to get my teeth out and that has not been factored in yet.

Gotta end all this doom and gloom with a funny story! When they admitted me to the hospital last Friday, I walked up to the 5th floor and told them they had reservations for me. They were surprised to get a "walk-in" and showed my my room. A wonderful ward occupied by me, a dead guy and a guy almost dead.....yup, thats right sittin right there in a wheelchair with his slippers still on, they fella accross the way was not far behind him...... it was OK.... they didn't make a lot of noise, but I had the strangest feeling that the room I was in was not a good place. Eventually they took out the dead guy and the other guy was just hanging around, so I settled in to a endless round of doctors asking the same questions, temp/blood pressure readings and various side trips to get xrays an MRI and enought blood drawn to make up for a good  part of the transfusions I recieved last year. That evening, the night nurse introduced herself to me and asked what I was doing in that room, explained that is where they put she promptly told me to gather up my stuff and get my behind into a private room where I would be more isolated......I see her now as big ole angel, sent by Father to get me out of that room.....he knows the desires of out heart.

Will keep you posted!