A few weeks ago I thought I had come down with some kind of stomach flu or some stressy kind of stomach thing.
I went to see my doc, Yvonne Ting, and she said I was probably okay and it would pass. Well, after a couple of weeks of feeling lousy, I made an appointment at the doctor’s office, but my doc was off. The receptionist scheduled me with another doc, Mary Kovach.
So I go to see Dr. Kovach and she was a bit more worried and ordered a CT scan. I started feeling a bit better and was going to blow off the CT scan, but my little voice told me to do it. Now, it should come as no surprise that every time I ignore my little voice I invariably end up in trouble. So about two weeks ago I go to this CT scan.
If you’ve never had a CT scan, they’re pretty painless and not even very inconvenient. So I go in have the scan and Kate and I decide to go out to dinner at this fancy schmancy steak joint called Firebirds. BTW, if you ever want a good meal that’s the place.
Ever have a doctor call your house? I can’t get a doctor to call my house even if I owe them money. So Kate and come home from Firebirds and my message light is blinking on the home phone. When I play the message, it’s doctor Ting.
“Just trying to reach you,” she says. “It’s after 5 (p.m.) and I am going home. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
I look at Kate and we are a bit … bemused?
“That’s ominous,” I said chuckling.
Kate said it was probably a follow up to tell me they found nothing. I could tell that she really didn’t believe that, but you know I did. I thought it would be no big deal
Well the next day it turns out I was 180 degrees out. Dr. Ting calls my office and we talk. She says I have a “sizeable mass” in my colon and will need major surgery. I almost fainted.
“I am trying to find a surgeon for you,” she said. “I’ll call you later.”
“Call me at home,” said. “I need to go home and tell Kate.
“That’s a good idea,” she said.
If you’ve never had that long drive to go find your love and tell her/him about some really bad news they don’t realize is coming, take it from me, the road moves quickly under your car, but you don’t seem to get anywhere. There is no traffic and your bad news bullet train makes it home in record time even though it seems like there should be some delay before you break your love’s heart. Probably the longest, shortest, worst ride between work and home one can imagine.
I pull into the driveway; tears streaming down my face, because I know in two minutes things will never be the same again. As soon as I say the words, “Honey I have to have an operation,” there are no redoes or take backs.
So I tell Kate the news and she cries, but is remarkably resilient and positive.
Sometime, and I don’t remember exactly when Dr. Ting calls, but she tells me I have an appointment the next Wednesday with Dr Fred Dentsman, the big muckety muck colon surgeon at Christiana Care.
I won’t last ‘till that long.
On Saturday Kate and I go to the movies and see Hanna. I am miserable. About a third of the way through I go the bathroom and begin puking my guts out. I come back to my seat and tell Kate I need to go home.
It’s a cold, wet, windy day. As we leave the theater, Kate says, “You’re going to the ER.”
“Bullshit,” I said and began puking into the wind. The wind snaps the bile back into my face and I look at my wife.
“You’re right,” I said. “I need to go to the ER.”
We ride to Christiana Care. When you walk into the ER the staff is segregated form the patients in what looks like a prison visiting room. The staff is behind glass several inches thick and passes papers to you via a counter that is cut out to slide things back and forth.
I get to the window and produce my ID and insurance card. I have this uncontrollable vomiting fit and run outside ending up on all fours in front of the ER vomiting my guts out.
I am admitted that night.
I think it’s the next day when I meet Dr. Dentsman and they schedule my surgery for that Wednesday.
When they go in; discover the mass and it appears to be cancerous. They take it out and send if off to do whatever it is that is done with tumors.
I turns out the tumor is a lymphoma, so I am not quite sure what next steps are. But I am pretty optimistic.
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