The First Days
After weeks of a cough that just wouldn’t quit, several doctor appointments, all the typical asthma treatments, I took myself to immediate care Monday– or was it Sunday?– afternoon and said I needed a chest x-ray. They allowed as how it was time, zapped me, and told me I had pneumonia. Armed with a fistful of prescriptions, I headed to my car.
My phone rang just as I unlocked the doors. The doctor asked if I could come back in. My heart sank. It was probably Covid, I thought. As I waited in the little examining room, the phone range again. It was the ENT doctor I’d called earlier in the day, to talk more about my troubling thyroid biopsy. Everyone in my family had agreed that, with our familial history of strange cancer, the thyroid has to come out. Since I was in a little room waiting for another doctor, I was super aware of how I needed to be super-efficient with the phone call.
Good thing, because just as I was winding up my thyroid conversation, the examining room doorknob turned and the immediate care doc was back.
So, the immediate care doctor began, the radiologist had a chance to look at the Xray and found a mass. After a minute, I said, “Well. Fuck,” and immediately apologized. He allowed as how that was a completely appropriate response. The plan: start the antibiotics, schedule a CAT scan, talk to my primary care doc.
Insurance authorizations and permissions, appointments, conversations between medical people seemed to unroll in the background without much attention from me. The CT got scheduled; I planned to keep the video appointment with my primary care doc.
Other moments from the day:- The Xray technician hadn’t gotten a Covid shot because “vaccines weren’t his thing.” I smiled gamely, even thought I wanted to scream. I did tweet later to his employer that it seemed a wee bit unethical for him to be in close contact with possibly ill people, but hey, gotta honor those personal rights, right?
- My pharmacy took more than four hours to fill prescriptions for simple antibiotics and filled them only because I bugged them. WTF?
- I started to get responses to emails I’d sent about our hellacious and absurd experience we’d had trying to get my mom a Covid vaccination. The head of epidemiology for the Oregon Health Authority wrote back within several hours! Apologies, it would get better, he’d pass on my email to the vaccine team, yada yada. BUT, a staffer from my state rep, on the Health Committee, wondered if I’d like an appointment to speak with him. Oooh, you bet.
Wednesday: CT Scan
The Immediate Care doc called as I was on my home from the early CT scan. That mass? Bigger than the Xray dude had been able to see. Once again, I expressed my feelings colorfully. It was decided I didn’t need the antibiotics, since they wouldn’t help with The Thing that wasn’t pneumonia; I’d speak with my primary care doctor, etc.
Again, things unrolled fiercely in the background. When I called my primary care doctor’s office to see what was what, I learned that everything was being put into place. My doctor and I talked a couple of times; a lung surgeon at the cancer center would see me Monday.
The Weekend
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Tl:dr: we know a boatload about cancer, talking with doctors, being patient advocates, etc. etc. Friday night, my husband, daughter, mother and I brainstormed questions for the surgeon. As I prepared for bed, I felt cocooned in their love.
The prayer chain at church is working overtime and I am so grateful for the community there that is holding me close.
We think that, despite the state of emergency that’s been declared because of this weekend’s ice storm, we’ll make it to the surgeon tomorrow.
Mom has her vaccination scheduled for tomorrow.
I will go clean the bathroom, see if I can figure out how to keep the hummingbird feeder defrosted– they have swooped around the feeder, looking– and tend to other chores.
Because even in the unpredictable looniness of events, life does goes on.
And that’s good.
Valentine’s Day Gift from Mother Nature
