Life in Temporary Limbo
For the better part of three weeks, I had to wait out the machinations behind the scenes at various doctors offices and the insurance company handling my Medicare account.
There really wasn’t much to do except try to live my life as best I could, taking care of what I needed to take care of to keep the household running. It was during this period that I made the decision to keep track of my disease and post what I could on the internet.
I started with a couple of synopsis on Facebook. I started with a remark about missing the Trifecta, followed by a more complete recap on the Sunday following the news from The Oncologist. I ended the entry with a bit of serendipity:
“The next steps include an MRI, a visit with a different surgeon, and an appointment with the Oncologist – probably after the surgeon goes fishing in my body for a sample.
The first couple of weeks in August will probably be quite interesting.
I am upbeat.
If I ended up having to have Chemotherapy, I could pretend that I’m Lex Luthor![1]
Not to minimize some of the battles other people of my acquaintance have had with “The Big C.” Cancer is a big deal. I am thankful that my journey so far has been as easy as it has been.”
And so it goes.
I took the time to write in my personal blog space courtesy of WordPress at bdharrellauthor.com, too. I did two entries at WordPress in relatively short order. The first was a recap of my situation. The second was more of a reflection.
Cancer, it appears, runs in the family.
My father died of a Melanoma that migrated to his brain less than six months after his 71st birthday.
My mother developed throat cancer and died at the tender age of 86.
My maternal grandfather also had throat cancer, but he died just short of his 93rd birthday.
Mom’s sister died of a massive stroke while she was under treatment for cancer – Dad’s sister had cancer and survived several years before she passed.
I pointed out that I was just 69 with aspirations of living to the ripe old age of 102, killed by a jealous lover.
Another part of the blog was about the connection of tobacco use and cancer. My parents both smoked – Mom quit when she was 40, Dad never really did quit. Mom’s sister and my maternal grandfather both used tobacco. I used tobacco myself until I was thirty-nine.
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Aside from my forays on the web, I had other concerns. The Dog Filbrix[2], for example, was due for a trip to the vet. On the day I took her, I got a call from the people doing the MRI getting me set up for the first day in August at the ungodly hour of 6:30 in the morning. It was one of those “I have to take it” deals because of the call I got a day or two earlier setting up an appointment to see the surgeon on the seventh.
I wasn’t complaining.
To be scheduled to see a surgeon less than three weeks after the consultation telling me that there was something on my liver appeared (to me) to be rather quick. I was asymptomatic and had no idea that something was wrong, other than being told by the Oncologist that there was something wrong.
And that says a lot about early detection.
Many people wait until there’s a problem, or a number of problems before going to see a doctor and finding out that they have a bigger problem than the one they bargained for. At the time I’m writing this (Early November) I have been following the case of a friend in Ohio who was having trouble sleeping to begin with, along with several other problems at the same time. Eventually (over a period of several months) he was diagnosed with and will be undergoing treatment for Stage 3 lung cancer. His case will come up later as I blog my own experiences.
While I was waiting for the new MRI and my visit with the surgeon, I developed a set of questions to be asked at the appropriate time. I also started to look at what was happening to, or around me, with a sense of humor.
Humor is a defense mechanism I employ quite often. Humor helps to take the edge off.
In my personal library is the book Humor Works, written by John Morreall, Ph.D. (HRD Press Inc. 1997 – ISBN 0-87425-400-0), generously donated by my Mother-In-Law a few years ago. The book confirms that humor can take the edge off a tricky situation for some of us.
I am one of those people.
Being an old fart, I’m allowed.
[1] After writing this entry into my Facebook feed, I found that the current generation of people are not familiar with Superman’s nemesis, Lex Luthor. If it is of any help, perhaps I should bring up a different character. Doctor Evil, as portrayed by Mike Meyers in the Austin Powers movies.
[2] I refer to The Dog Filbrix as The Dog Filbrix because of my daughter. She became enamored of a friend’s small dog, referring to it as The Dog Aderick. She was three, maybe four at the time. Filbrix is on me. When I was a youngster at about the same age, I had a stuffed dog I named Filbrix for some unknown reason. I will have more about the dog Filbrix later on in this narrative.
Photo = My not still 4-year-old daughter and the dog Filbrix
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