Friday, July 25, 2014

BRO. ART SAYS NOTHING JUST SO HAPPENS

We have learned in the last few months that Pop has a second aneurysm. This one is in a much worse location than the first. The first one was in or around the abdomen and Carmen, our Nurse Practitioner daughter, makes sure he has it checked yearly. IT JUST SO HAPPENED, this one was found when he was having a CT Scan on his lungs. Pop is a smoker and Carmen wants him to be able to smoke if he chooses to do so, but she also wants him to keep a close check on his lungs. As they were checking the results of the CT Scan, they found the aneurysm in the main aorta coming out of the top of the heart. That was scary, for sure. Immediately, Carmen made him an appointment with a doctor in Louisville who specializes in this type of surgery.  We met with him. He explained the dangers and the risks of smoking and lifting, but he recommended we wait a few more months and have another scan run, so we could see if there was any change. We waited until his birth month to run the second scan, them we made the trip back to Louisville to meet with Dr. Ganzel. In the meantime, Pop was put through some heart test, just in case.We were all very anxious about this meeting, since they had already had Pop to do the heart check up, just in case they needed to do emergency surgery. We met with Dr. Ganzel in mid July and IT JUST SO HAPPENED there was no change. Thank God! Talk about a bunch of happy people. We were all so elated.

Now that that was over, and since we were already in Louisville, we decided to track down the folks who were working with me and my business with the cancer. They had not gotten back to me about connecting up with the Oncologist, the chemo pills that I would be taking, nor the cancer insurance paperwork I had left with them. We were getting a bit anxious about it all. Sure enough, the James Graham Brown Cancer Center was just a couple of blocks away, so we set out to find our way there. When we got there, we found it was our lucky day. IT JUST SO HAPPENED, my doctor was scheduled to be at that location on this very day. We were directed to his cubical and found that my doctor had signed me up with two different Oncologists, hopefully, he was comfortable with both, and which ever one could see me first, would be my new Oncologist. I only knew about the one, but it turns out the second Oncologist was able to get to my case sooner, so we set up an appointment with him.  I was a bit leery about just now hearing that there was a second Oncologist lined up for me to see, but after returning home that day, IT JUST SO HAPPENED, I learned that a dear friend of mine had been using this same Oncologist for years and thought he was exceptional in every way. Such a relief to hear that news. Now I could rest easier. It is so scary having to go to a doctor without any knowledge of his work. They set up an appointment for me, and we returned to Louisville a few days later. Pop and I were on our own this day. Neither of the two girls were able to go with us. It has been so wonderful having one and sometimes both of them with us to hear and help us to understand everything that was said. Neither Pop's nor my memory is the greatest nowadays. but we got through it just fine. We were there from 9 to 12, meeting with all sorts of folks, each having different issues to go over with us. Much of the topics discussed with us, we felt was just a formality, since they are working with cancer patients, impending death, and/or long term health care. I have felt so good right up to the day I was told I had cancer, and I have continued to feel so good, it seemed useless for them to go through all that they did, discussing topics usually saved for the dying. Hopefully, I am not in that category just yet, but with cancer, it's not an exact science, and anything can change at any moment. Nevertheless, after all of the talks regarding all of the different issues we might be facing, they drew more blood and another doctor came in an discussed what they had found and the upcoming procedures they would be using regarding my cancer. They would be scheduling a couple of body scans to be sure there were no other cancers lurking inside my body. The process was started toward getting the chemo pills set up for me, and the blood test I would be taking weekly for a few weeks, to make sure my body was accepting the pills. The many side effects from the pills are scary, but I have spoke to one person who is taking the same pills and she says her body adjusted quickly to them and the symptoms leveled out. Hopefully, that will be the case for me. One symptom that worries me, is the disturbances in the heart rhythm.   Since I have learned that my heart is so sensitive to some things, I fear the pills may cause some problems in that regard. Caffeine sensitivity and the irregularities in my heart is what helped me to find the cancer in the first place. IT JUST SO HAPPENED, my heart doctor, Dr. Mehta, found the cancerous tumor while running an echocardiogram on my heart.

There has been a mix up in scheduling this last few days. I received a notice in the mail that said I was to have the necessary scans in Louisville on the morning of July 24. The notice did not reach me until shortly after noon on that same day. I was able to call and reschedule the scans to be done in our local hospital next week. That would be much better. The only bad thing now is that our local hospital requires you to drink that awful drink in preparation for the scans. Yuk!

So that's where I am at this point. My chemo pills should be ready to pick up on Monday. Then I must do blood work every week until they see how my body is accepting the chemo pills. I will offer updates as they occur. I have been posting daily on Facebook about my journey with this cancer, but I wanted it to be documented in my little books for future generations to see, so that is the reason I am posting about my journey, here on my blog, too.

With God's help and the support of my friends and family, WE will get through whatever is to come from this day forward. I say WE, because cancer affects the entire family in one way or another. Not just the person with it.

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