Miracles Happen, Right?

Tuesday, January 5

Would you believe that I still have no results pertaining to my lung yet?  I was checking all day, scared of what I might find.

Saw my surgeon.  He is a good guy. Asked me how I was doing.  I’m okay, I told him, but it looks like I have mets in my bone marrow again… although I don’t really believe it because this happened to me before when I came back from my cancer treatment in Germany.

Oh?  Why did you go to Germany?

Now there’s a loaded question.  This is what I told him.  Hmmm…it might be because they almost killed me three times here.  Or maybe it was because the hormone treatments stopped working and they told me they couldn’t do anything for me anymore except manage the pain.  That’s when I decided to high tail it outta here because at least over there they thought they could keep me alive for many years to come.

“Well it looks like Dr Sahgal is happy with your progress,” he said.  “Nothing going on in your spine.  Your bones are growing back and your hardware is good.”

“Yes but my oncologist is not happy with me right now because I’m not doing what he is telling me to”, I replied.

“How did you find out about this place?”, he asked.

“My friend knew someone who went there”, I told him.

Short and sweet and I was out of there with an appointment scheduled for next year.

Before I saw him,  I was talking to the nurse in the room by myself (she was the one that nicknamed me “The Screamer” after my surgery).   I asked her if she would mind looking for my chest CT scan on her computer because it wasn’t appearing on myUHN.  I had results for my pelvis and abdominal scans, but nothing has been reported about my lungs.  I was worried because I have been coughing lately and I was told in August that I had a tumour at the bottom of my right lung.  She checked.

Thank heavens PMH actually did the scan which included the lungs.  That was a relief because I would have gone on some kind of Italian rampage if someone messed that up and I had to go do this again. I really don’t need more radiation considering I’m maxed out.  The nurse went through the slides and said, “I’m no technician or anything but I don’t see anything”. Meanwhile, I was peering over looking for white spots on my lung scans too and didn’t see anything either.

Now wouldn’t that be something if the 1.9mm tumour they found in August and spots on the fissure line disappeared just like the thing on my pancreas?

Miracles do happen, right?

—————————-

That afternoon….I decided to try something new today to alleviate my bronchial asthma problem.  I visited a salt cave.

Several years ago when I experienced this same yearly nagging cough in the fall (rain + leaves = mould), my allergist told me the only way to get rid of it is to go to somewhere hot with a beach and breathe in the salt water air.  Sounds enticing.

Well although I would love to escape right now, it ain’t happening due to the fact that my family dr seems to think I need a blood transfusion and I’m not exactly rich.  Btw, I phoned Germany for some hemoglobin help and it should be on its way.  Plus I stopped taking my German drugs temporarily until my white/red blood counts improve.  There was also some mention about giving me a neupragena (sp?) shot ($3,000-4,000 a pop) on my Sunnybrook blood test results but no one has phoned me about that one yet.  That prescription certainly will give me lots of air mile points for my next trip, as a patient usually needs 3-4 shots to get their counts up. Although I think I would decline that proposed strategy because I’m sure it comes with some interesting side effects which I could do without.  I get to visit my family dr next week.  Can’t wait to discuss the sudden disappearance of “my baby.”

The salt cave was wonderful on my lungs.  I spent the first 1/2 hour coughing up a storm.  I felt rather bad for the gentleman in the cave with me and my older sister.  He certain didn’t get a quiet session because I was coughing up a lung.  Felt really good.  Salt is so healing.  Wish I had know about this before when I suffered with bronchial asthma.  I can’t use a puffer because I’m allergic to ventolin, alupent and its whole medicinal family including it’s cousins.  The cave was a little bit cool so I wore my white alpaca babushka hat which I bought from Germany.  My friend Doug calls me the Snow Queen whenever I where it.  The cold weather lately sure warranted it.

Wednesday, January 6

Still no lung news.  I phoned the CT Scan place….got a recording, what else.  Maybe if I’m in a bad mood, I’ll nag them and call them every 5 minutes tomorrow.  Fill up their answering machine with 20+ calls.

Today I went to The Art For Cancer Foundation and made the  winter scene above.  It was challenging.  I enjoyed painting it, but my back sure could use a rest.  Time for bed.

———————————————————-

Below are the benefits of going into a salt cave, should you ever decide to go.  The one I went to was in Mississauga.  There is one near York University, in Niagara Falls, and The Windsor Arms Hotel.  I didn’t realize it increases your hemoglobin level too!  Next time you’re sick or have a respiratory ailment you may want to check it out.  Prices range from $17 (Groupon) to $50 for an hour session depending where you go.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It’s Off To Emergency We Go

Friday, December 4, 2015

Haven’t been blogging because I have been insanely busy lately.  All is good.  Coached boys volleyball team.  Went to a workshop at Art For Cancer Foundation and painted this sunrise picture.

Got a ticket on Tuesday near Sunnybrook (they changed the no parking sign to no stopping which I didn’t notice).  I’m contesting it.  Hoping the judge will be nice and reduce the fine at least.  I went to a free cooking course at Wellspring and didn’t want to pay the $24 parking fee for 2 1/2 hours.  Unfortunately that wasn’t my only problem that day.  The cooking course was pretty much all raw vegetarian and a bit of cheese.  I’m lactose intolerant (makes me cough up phlegm) and my German dr told me my stomach intestines were inflamed and I should only eat cooked veggies.  Boy was he right.   My tummy hurt for a couple of days.  Lost a couple of pounds too.  Because I wasn’t eating much I figured I needed some nutrients so I asked my daughter to make me a veggie juice on Thursday night and then I felt really horrible after that.  Didn’t make it to my cancer support group meeting because I felt so ill.

At 3:45 in the morning, my dear friend who is staying with me thought she was having a heart attack.  She came to the right place.  Pulled out my heart monitor.  Everything was high (systolic, blood pressure, pulse…mentally recorded time and rates).  Gave her as aspirin (remember the time).  Phoned tele-health….was not happy that they have a ten minute recording about getting your stupid health card before you even get a chance to talk to anyone.  Got dressed.  Out the door and into the car with cell phone and ill friend in tow.  Destination…Sunnybrook, Trauma and Heart Attack Central.  I decided to take her there because I was afraid that if I called an ambulance that they would take her to Scarborough General (30 seconds away from my house), a fate worse than death, and I valued her life. 

Why not Scarborough General?   I dunno.  Maybe it’s because of the time I stayed there overnight and they didn’t bother giving me a nurse after surgery.  Maybe it’s because of the time I had heart problems and I arrived at the ER and there was nobody there and I waited 15  minutes for a triage nurse to appear at her post…that’s when I got back into the car and went to Mt Sinai.  Maybe it’s because I had a mammogram there 13 years ago and no one bothered phoning me to tell me there was something suspicious there.  Or maybe it was because the last time I went there ER Doctor told me that the next time I had an emergency, not to come here because they didn’t know what to do with me.   Anyhow, I think you see my point. 

Did you know that at 3:55 a.m. in the morning you can go 100 mph on Lawrence and get all but one green light? Meanwhile, my friend was talking to good ole tele-health and answering questions.  I knew, as I was driving, that she hit 5/6 red flags for a heart attack (chest pain, pain in back, shortness of breath, nausea, and sweating).   That nurse was SLOW!  Holy cow.  By the way she essentially told me to shut up and to let the patient answer the questions.

By the time the tele-heath nurse finished evaluating her…..”You need an ambulance”…. she tells us after she has painstakingly punched into the computer all of my friends responses,  I was less than 4 minutes away from Sunnybrook.  So I told her just to send the information to them as we were nearby.   She told me to drive cautiously en route.  Too late for that, chickie!

Now, you would think (after watching ER and Greys anatomy shows on TV) that someone would be greeting us at the ER door, but you would be wrong.  It seems to me that they don’t care as much if you’re having heart attack symptoms than if you are having a stroke (in which case you have a 4 hour timeline to get some injection in you to break up the clot or you could possibly face permanent damage and they could face a law suit).  Two people ahead of us.  Triaged fairly quickly, then registered by 4:10.  Told my friend we were in it for the long haul because they would need to get her blood work done and wait 4-6 hrs later to check the troponin levels to see if in fact she had a heart attack.  She called a replacement for work.  Guess what time she got the blood work done?   7:10.  Just in time for a shift change at 7:30. 

We met an interesting man in the second ER waiting room.  He shared his medical problems with us.   I was amused as he kept asking us for our opinions on his condition (he was having problems with his heart, he drinks and smokes, and his friend wouldn’t let him buy the heart drugs his doctor prescribed him). 

I could tell my friend was getting exasperated by him and wanted to thump him in the head, particularly when he started discussing his hemorrhoid problems.  Oh how I wish my husband was with us!  I could just imagine how that conversation would have ended up.  Sometimes you get some interesting entertainment whilst in the waiting room.  My friend emailed me and told me he was missing a few screws upstairs.

Shortly thereafter, he was called for a review with a doctor.  It lasted less than 4 minutes and he was discharged. I don’t think he even got a prescription for his hemorrhoids!  He was told to go see his family doctor.  It was just after 8:30.

My friend got her first set of blood work back.  Normal, thank heavens.  But we still had to wait for the other one (troponin) and they wanted to do a chest X-ray.  By 11:00, my friend was really tired of being there.  I told her, “Don’t worry, they have to get you out of here in 8 hours from the time you arrived or they have to admit you.  Anything more than 8 hours also requires an extra billing to OHIP who requires an explanation as to why you are still there waiting for a diagnosis.   Sure enough, a resident quickly told her at 12:00 that she did not in fact have a heart attack or a pulmonary embolism and she was free to go.  Right on time.  “That’s what my friend told me,” she answered. 

Drove my friend to her worried sister.  She was going to take the bus, a very long 3 hour bus ride and her back was still hurting her so off we went in my car.  I spent the night with them.  We had delicious Thai food for dinner.   It was very nice spending some quality time with the two of them.  Their apartment is so cool.  They have giraffes in their living room with Santa hats on all their heads!  She should be an interior decorator.  I’d hire her! 

Drove home the next morning.  Will try to catch up on sleep tonight.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Hi.  Not feeling so great.  My wacky cough is back.  I usually get this in the fall because I’m allergic to mold….too many dead leaves on the ground.  I don’t do well when it rains either.  Get headaches and feel like total crap. 

Also was a bad girl because I ate cheese last week.  Not a good idea when you are lactose intolerent.  I don’t fart.  I just cough up a lung. 

Waiting for the snow to come so I can feel better.  Either that or I’m going to have to drive somewhere hot with salt water to dry out my lungs (that’s what my allergist told me years ago). 

Wonder if a sauna would help.  Sigh…..

Wednesday, Dec. 9

Currently hooked up to vitamin C I.V.  Hopefully will start feeling better soon.  Blood pressure was pretty low when I started.  Had my chest/cough checked.  It’s clear, so it’s not bronchitis.  Damn cheese!  Damn mouldy leaves.   My cousin says she loves it when I swear in my blogs!