Update!

My appointment, which was supposed to be today, was changed, at the last minute to last Wednesday. And here I am just updating you now! Imagine!

I went to Dr. Mowatt's office for the appointment and met with he and Dr. Morriss. I don't know that I mentioned that Dr. Mowatt's receptionist didn't know about the magic Canadian citizen no-need-to-pay form, and after talking to him about it last time, she told me that appointment was free, but if I didn't get my Medicare straightened out before this one, I would have to pay for it. Well, all mention of that went out the window at this appointment. Dr. Mowatt said keep working on Medicare because it will be easier in the long run, but everything is covered.

The verdict is: I will be having surgery. We still don't know what it is. They were sort of even disagreeing about it in front of me! LOL! Dr. Morriss was leaning towards paraganglioma, but Dr. Mowatt towards sarcoma. Doesn't really matter, cancer is cancer at this point. Interestingly, Dr. Mowatt perfectly described my own opinion of biopsies when he said "It has to come out regardless, why open it up into the retroperitoneal cavity?"

Both doctors kept saying I was young and otherwise healthy, like an annoying number of times. (I kept wanting to insert "attractive" as well, but I held back.) They can see the blood flow to the kidney and it doesn't look attached, so I may not lose that. Dr. Morriss said if it is not malignant, it is pre-malignant, so it needs to go. Dr. Mowatt said "We'll schedule you for surgery as soon as possible." I asked him to define the timeline a little further for me, and he said two to four weeks. Behind him, Dr. Morriss was mouthing "A month!". Seeing me looking at Dr. Morriss and trying not to laugh, Dr. Mowatt repeated himself. Dr. Morriss said "You must be doing surgery overtime, I won't be able to schedule this in for a month." Since we have two surgeons (Mowatt and Morriss) plus the neuro and cardiology who will have to be on standby, I think it is more than reasonable for it to be a month. I will be in the hospital 7 to 10 days unless there are complications. I asked about work and suggested I would be off for 2-4 weeks, but he said 6-8 weeks. Ewwww. I will get massive amounts of scrapbooking done, I guess. I will need more channels on the TV! I swear we got TLC and HGTV this summer but they no longer come in now. I have a stockpile of To Be Read books for the hospital.

I had to do a catecholamines/VMA test, which Dr. Morriss said should indicate if it were a pheochromocytoma (what Mom had, they changed the name, it was physiochromocytoma when she had it.) Said Dr. Morriss, theoretically the pheo would come with blood pressure changes that could be an issue during surgery, and when he said that, I said "That's what Mom had." and he said "He didn't tell me that. Did I know that?" And I said "I think so, maybe that's why you think paraganglioma." He gave me an appraising look. :) Mom didn't have any BP changes, I found out later, so I probably won't need to worry. I do need to do some more research though, since I thought pheo was no longer an option based on location. I am nothing if not curious.

I like Dr. Morriss, and I feel good about this. He has a sense of humor, and gets my stupid jokes, for which I am grateful. I was less comfortable with Dr. Mowatt last visit just because he seemed not to have a sense of humor (but then again, how many oncological surgery patients are looking for a sense of humor?) but in his defense he had a rotten cold and I am a complex case. In many ways!

So, after Laboratory Receiving finally determined which specimen jug I needed, I took my sample collection jugs home. When she gave it to me, it was a 3 l jug, and I asked for 2. She looked at me askance, but...I really did need two! It was no problem, although I couldn't go to the gravesite at Jerry's funeral because I had to run home to pee. I had to work Friday night, so I intended to finish up Friday morning (24 hour collection) and drop it off Friday before work. Due to overwhelming tiredness, I waited and dropped it off Saturday morning. I also went to Zellers, the Thrift store (scored two biggish pots! Yay! Now I have a pot big enough for potatoes for a Mosher family dinner!) and Deluxe Fish and Chips while I was in the City. I got home at noon and decided to cut kindling, since I would be able to sleep that night.... and of course I got called in to work. So I worked Saturday night.

This week, I have to work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday days, and then Friday night. Next week will be all nights. I may be too old for this! LOL! Even after a three hour nap yesterday (and believe me I nap at work) I had very little strength in my legs to walk in to work with today. Not so much of an issue that I am more than slowed down by it, but enough that I notice and am annoyed by it. I just kind of feel that I am walking through knee deep water. Other than that, the back pain is consistent, I have to sit down to tie my work boots and it is difficult to shave my legs in the shower. Mom and Jessie are going to get me one of those little old lady shower chairs, and for the boots, my chair was moved out of the entry way when I was moving stuff, so once I put that back, all will be well. I still fall over a little bit when I stand up too fast, and I am a little bit slow at getting up. Other than that, no issues.

That's the update!
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