Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Story of A Tumor

HELLO!
I finally managed to get to my computer and tell my tale. After my vacation in Europe I had a 3 day turn around and then spent a week in Florida. It was Jenna's 11th birthday + I hadn't seen my family since my Mother passed away in May. I had this funny pain during dinner on Sat. Sept. 1st and thought it was just a gas pain or something. Since it really didn't go away by the time I got home on Monday, I made a Dr.'s appt. for Thursday. Now mind you, this was just an annoying pain. My Doc said he wanted me to have a CT scan to determin what it was. I said, ok, when.....he said NOW. Now?? Ok, now. I walked over to the ER enterance (his office is in Northside Forsyth Hospital in Cumming), had the CT scan, and was told I had a VERY, VERY, BAD looking mass that had to be removed. Everyone kept saying VERY,, VERY BAD, implying cancer but didn't actually say. I couldn't believe all this. I had this slight pain. Now a MASS?
Surgery was the next day, Friday. Arlene flew up and was there when I woke up. Upon waking up, my surgeon said the tumor I had was very unusual, LOOKED bad but may not be. He was waiting for the pathology report. Monday he said the report showed it was BENIGN!
Since it was such an unusual looking thing, he then sent it to the Mayo Clinic for further testing. They agreed. Thank GOD.
As it turns out this lovely turmor I had has 2 types, the benign type & the malignant type, which mimic each other. Therefore it's difficult to determin which I had with obserevation alone.
I came home on the 15th and Eddie flew here from Calif. to stay for the week. I then proceded to get a wound infection which the Doc tried to take care of in his office. THIS wasn't gonna happen. GOD AWFUL PAIN with him digging around. He had me go in the next day for surgery to clean it out and I was back home on Friday.
All my stitches are out and now I'm left with this LARGE wound (9" long, 3" wide, & 3" deep) to heal up. I'm getting this devise called a Wound-Vac, which will be installed tomorrow. It's supposed to heal up wounds super fast. Good. I NEED THIS!
Ok, so that's the story. Friends have been picking up prescriptions, groceries, etc. since I have no idea when I can drive. My friend Marty is flying in Thursday night and will stay until Sunday. Such support. I could get used to all this attention. Sunny & Beauty Baby haven't left my side. All I have to do is call them & they come meowing. Cats do NOT do this as part of their normal behavior. They must know that I need them.
The one thing that I"m very dissapointed in myself is that I've done NO knitting. All these weeks of free time and NO knitting. Several reasons for this. For one, I haven't wanted to. I can't really concentrate too well. Maybe because of the pain meds I'm on?? Plus if I'm not paying attention I'll make a mistake and have to rip. Hate that. I'm on less pain stuff now so hopefully I'll pick up some old piece of yarn and just knit.
Will write more soon, but for now, that's it. (That's enough, isn't it? )