Second Diagnosis . . .

I went for check-ups for over four years. I had begun to work again after getting some other health issues under control. I was working in a bakery and decorating cakes, baking all kinds of goodies. I enjoyed it for the most part. I had learned to decorate cakes from my Mom, who was known as the cake lady when I was growing up. She made cakes to earn money so she could be a stay at home Mom. She also taught cake decorating for our local community college for several years.

About three months before I was going for my FIVE year check up, I noticed a place on my chest that was a little sore. The five year check-up is something all cancer patients look forward to because after five years you are considered cancer free and cured. I wasn’t concerned about the soreness, I just figured I had injured myself somehow and just didn’t remember what I had done. As time passed I noticed the spot getting more sore. After about six weeks I had begun to have problems with soreness in my arms and shoulders and noticed that when I would reach for something that it had become rather painful to do so. About two weeks before my five year check up I decided I should call the doctor at UVA and let him know what was going on. At this point it was pretty apparent there was something wrong and I was only two weeks from my “final” appointment. When I made the call I talked with my doctors assistant. She had a whole long list of questions and I answered them. The more questions she asked the more serious I began to think it was. After one-hundred and fifty seven questions (OK it probably wasn’t that many) she told me she would talk to the doctor and call me back.  She called back within a couple of hours. It has been my experience when they call you back right away; it isn’t usually a good thing. I was to have a PET scan when I came in for my five year check-up.

Now I have had lots and lots of tests but had never had a PET scan so I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a lot like a CT scan, they just use a different kind of fluid to “light” everything up. The substance they use is a nuclear medication.  The technician conducting the test did several things to prepare you for the test, none of which were very eventful. They do put an IV in etc. When he came to inject the nuclear medication, you know me, I laugh at weird stuff. He was all dressed up and no place to go. As he came near me, he was wearing a suit of lead complete with protective goggles and protective gloves. He looked like he was going to go deep sea diving all he needed now was an air tank strapped to his back. He was walking very slowly toward me so he wouldn’t “spill” any of the medication in the syringe. I burst out into a laugh. All I could think was he was being so careful not to get any of that substance on himself and he was going to put it in my veins. He injected the liquid into my IV, there was no reaction, and I mean I didn’t feel anything so it was pretty uneventful. You go into the room and they do the scan and then you are done. It’s pretty simple and then you wait for the doctors to get their results. They did put in a catheter, which also wasn’t really any big deal. Your bladder has to be empty - completely empty when they do the scan.

I go to leave the room and one of the technicians notices my bag has leaked just a little (two whole drops, literally). They immediately went into panic mode. I am standing there thinking, let’s overreact now. They started making calls. I go to walk out of the room and they tell me I can’t walk out that way because of those two little itty bitty drops. I’m thinking, how stupid is that? The drops came out of me and now they won’t even let me walk around it? As Charlie Brown would say . . . “Good Grief”. I offered to clean it up and they informed me that only the hazmat team could clean it up. And so they proceeded to call the hazmat team to come “clear” the room. At this point I am laughing out loud again about the huge deal they are making about two little drops of pee. Just didn’t make sense to me, then again, as I have said before, I know I am a little weird. It takes the hazmat team approximately 3 hours to “clear the area.” Talk about overkill.

After the doctors received my results, I was informed that the cancer had spread and I now had bone cancer in my sternum area. There were two spots that would need to be treated with radiation. Praise God it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. And Praise God the treatment only entailed radiation treatments. They even arranged for me to have the treatments close to home. And here we are, another blessing from God.