get a second opinion

I am having another frenzied day, cleaning the house, collecting tea cups [there are actually 36! yay!], designing an ad for the FH and off to spinning later. Shopping and ironing: DONE ha!

And, HORROR, my fridge, having housed the soaking bacalhau, now smells just like one…I've cleaned it twice to no avail, and am now trying the 'coffee grounds' trick. Sigh. Hope it works.

Just checking in on my email and I had this following message from Hystersisters. They have created a new website which is quite interesting, here. So I thought I'd slap it into a post before it gets lost in the rest of the emails that I keep 'saving to deal with later' [and then forgetting to deal with].

Good advice - if you're not certain - get a second opinion!

 

"Mama always said, "Many hands make light work!" It helps when cleaning the house. It helps on the deck of a big ship. It helps when there is a big, gigantic task that one person can not accomplish alone.

And so it is NOW with this video - sponsored and created solely by HysterSisters - that needs to be passed along with it's message to all women.

I'm asking for your helping hands. I'm asking you to view this video. And then at the end of the video - fill out the form to send it to other women. Your sisters. Your aunts. Your co-workers. Your girlfriends."

the procedure

I am writing this post mainly for my friends in Portugal. The translation of certain medical terms is complicated, and I really want them [you! I know you're reading this girls :o)] to know exactly what is happening / going to happen.

I keep getting emails from them, worried and confused as to what precisely is going to happen to me. Oh they make me feel like a Rock Star!

So.

Step 1:

The pre-op. This is when they ask you all about how you are NOW. Usually you have to report to the hospital for this, but as Renninson [my surgeon] is away on his holidays, this is not possible. So what will happen is this; a triage nurse will call me and run through what she can by phone. Everything else [blood tests etc] will be done on the morning of the surgery. This is a good thing, as the RD&E is full of the vomiting bug! I really do not want to be there if I don't need to.

Step 2:

The surgery is scheduled for the 1^st February. It is to be a laparoscopy. Renninson will try to take a sample of the 'thickening' they found on the original CT scan. This could be complicated due to the scar tissue I already have. The original hysterectomy, oophorectomy and Salpingo-oophorectomy was a massive surgery, and caused a lot of chaos in my abdomen. There is a LOT of scar tissue in there. He may not be able to get past/through it to the site of the problem. IF he can't, I will have to have another type of surgery – the same as I had when I had the original cancer removed. I DO hope not, as that scar has just healed well, and I do not wish to do the 'sardine tin' thing again…i.e.: chopped open from navel to pubic bone.

So, I am hoping he can get the sample of the 'thing' with the laparoscopy.

Here is a picture of the laparoscopy:

Looks like metal chopsticks!!

Step 3:

The biopsy. Once they have a sample of the 'thing' they will core biopsy it, and then we will know exactly what it is. 

After the laparoscopy, we will then simply await the result of the biopsy. Hoping it is scar tissue and not a recurrence of the hideous ovarian cancer. Keep your fingers crossed girls!

step 04: action

Thursday 7th February:
Right – waiting, waiting. This is not good for my head – I am very impatient. I understand that there are probably lots of people who need attention more urgently then I do. Of course. But as the small lump was now becoming the LARGE lump, I was starting to be rather unconcerned about everyone else’s problems, and rather obsessed with my own.

By this point the ‘Alien Life Form’ [henceforth known as ALF as I can never decide if it’s a lump, a cyst or a mass – so I give up] was a topic of conversation amongst my girlfriends, who were all a bit amazed. Me too. Then after a few days the ALF grown to about 20cm and my belly was hard as a rock. Sorry other people, but panic set in, and I was off to the GP’s again in ‘DO NOT MESS WITH MY HEAD’ mode!

My GP was fantastic. I want to have T-shirts made with his face on them. Dr Bradley for President. Dr Bradley for Prime Minister. He did an external exam, decided that he didn’t need to do an internal one [for obvious reasons], and got straight on the phone to the hospital. Much ‘doctor speak’, lots of frantic typing and by that evening I was in a bed in the Wynard Ward, waiting for a slot to be available for the CAT scan to be done as fast as possible. Managed to race around the house with the hoover before I packed my little bag and taxied off to the hospital, as I had images of never coming out again in my, by now, spinning head.

Unfortunately they couldn’t fit me in on the Friday as hoped for, so I went home in the afternoon, but clutching an appointment for Monday morning in my sticky little hand. Phew. Relief. Everyone in there was so understanding, I now felt in good hands, and that some action was being taken.

step 03. still calm at this point!

Wednesday 30th January:
Hoorah! At long last the day arrives. Off to the RD&E for the sound scan thing.
The 5cm lump had now become about 10cm, and I was getting a bit worried. Dr Ali, a registrar of Mr Renninson, did the ultra sound scan. Oh goody, I could look at the Alien Life Form on the TV. Fantastic. NOT! Lovely friendly nurse there to hold my hand and talk to me, I think this is so that you don’t run off shrieking when you see the TV image.

Packed myself back into my clothes, and Dr Ali then informed us [yep, my darling husband Aj was there, being very cool and asking things that I forgot about] that the ‘cyst’ [aha – now we know what it is – good show] was about 11cm, and it looked as if it may be malignant. But that he couldn’t really say, as that’s impossible to know until the mass [oh yes, there are all sorts of names for these things – cyst, mass, blah] had been biopsied. This can only happen AFTER it’s been removed.

So, ok, when can you remove it please? Hmm – well, you have to have a CAT scan. You will receive an appointment. Go away, and don’t worry. Right. Sure. I have a lump that’s doubled in size in ten days, looks malignant but I shouldn’t worry? Ha! Of course...well, I laugh in your face...
But joking aside, I was given an appointment for three weeks hence to have the CAT scan. Off we went for more waiting.