Had a very relaxing day. Up late. Shopping with Liz. Wathcing football. But thinking about Wednesday. Hard to ignore.
Nancy drove home from visiting her parents. Her mom is in rehab for her broken hip. Challenges all around with dad 91 and mom 85? (all worthy of its own blog/book). Great effort on Nancy’s part to be dealing with that and my issues. Glad she’s home safe.
Nancy is off to PA to visit her mom and dad. Her mom is recovering from a broken hip. We are doing our best to support the healthcare industry. How do we juggle Grammy’s coming home the day after my surgery.
Emily and Joel are heading back to Philly…but not before she made pancakes for us. She’ll be back Tuesday night, at Day minus 1. Liz and I then headed out to Betty’s to take a lesson on Sophie. I brought Sophie up from the field after giving her a candy cane. Sophie looked great. So did Liz!
Spending a nice quiet day with Liz watching football.
Also got a very nice note from Timberlake, Jane’s son and our ring bearer at our wedding.
Waiting, seems to be what’s in store for me now. Just learned how to add email subs to blog.
Calm day after Thanksgiving. Family all here. Passed the rugby ball with Joel…in between putting up xmas lights. Joel went for his second trail ride in so many days!
Had a great conversation with my favorite aunt Jane. She had just returned from California and visiting Timberlake, Erika et al.
Tried to find out who the anaesthesiologists could be and if our friend’s recommendation is on the list. Otherwise focusing on family.
Watched “The Wire” with Joel and Emily last night. It’s a very intense show. Glad I live in Poolesville and not the west side of Baltimore! So late to bed.
The only time I think/worry about the C in my kidney is going to sleep and when I awake in the middle of the night. I think I’m practicing waking up…the thought of going under is driving me nuts. (I’ve been waking up around 2 or 3am for sometime…so it’s not related to this!) I have had general anesthesia twice when I was 16. Instead of counting down from 10 as instructed, I yelled at the surgeon to do it right…particually the second time, since he was finishing the job from the first time. At least I gave them a laugh. (I had a stick break off inside my foot and the surgery was to remove it.) Going under wasn’t a big deal then, but the movie Coma coming out afterwards, doesn’t help things!
The preparation for Thanksgiving is beginning…while still dazed in bed, I smell the cooking. Liz will be arriving soon. Yeah! My task for the day…tasks: 1) stay out of the way, 2) finish getting the leaves out of the yard!
One week to go til the knife. Good news on the job front and lots of emails and some surprise phone calls from dear friends. What a treat! What’s really scarey is that friends from different parts of the country and social groups are meeting each other via these emails…not sure I want any one person to know all of what everyone individually knows about me! I’m also looking forward to Thanksgiving with everyone home.
Emily and Joel arrived. Yeah! Hugs all around. Dini’s video production of the wedding arrived today and Nancy and I behaved and waited until Emily came home. Great job, but too many shots of my teary eyes! But, great memories of a great day.
Tuesday. Lots of work today mix with some new entrants into my new world. For whatever reasons, I’m having less patience with the less important things. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving with everyone here.
Hmmm…it was easier to write in the past tense rather than realtime. Wonder why? Can’t touch the past? Maybe it’s because I have now given the url to others and now it’s not just me and Google?
Enough for now…back to the spreadsheets for my clients.
Monday, a week ago this all started. Lot’s of minor logistics to deal with today, but I’m back in the space where the day is set, the surgeon is set and I don’t have to think about it. Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t or can stop, but at least I don’t have to. I confirmed the schedule today. Sibley hospital, December 3rd at 12:30. Given 3-4 hours, I’ll be in recovery just in time for happy hour! Instead of cocktails, I’ll have a little button to push.
Funny how the story shortens as more and more people are brought into the know. Now 7 days gets crammed into a 10 minute story instead of 2 days. I wonder how much people really want to hear? Is it the bottom line? Or, is it the opportunity to read into your voice.
One humorous call was with a friend who just got layed off from Goldman Sachs. High-level guy with a real operational role. As I then relayed my news…he didn’t feel so bad! My father once said, “Whatever your problems, you won’t want to trade with anyone.” How true.
Hugged Elizabeth today. Worked on consulting and networking. Otherwise typical day, quiet evening with Nancy. Talked to Emily today. She was sore from her 1/2 marathon Sunday. Apparently I already bought her Christmas present to me: The Storm Blackberry.
Friday morning at 8:00am I have a pre-op exam at Suburban hospital…am I fit for surgery is the purpose. And I have a 10:30 with one of the surgeons, the doc who I met on Monday at the hospital. (reminds me, I have to go back and write about what happened in room 405)
The nurse takes my blood pressure and asks me all the same questions again. Also provides me with information about the day of surgery. I ask her how many of these operations does the hospital do in a year. No one has ever asked her a question like this before. Amazing! But when the doctor came in, she left to see where to find that info. 15 minutes later she comes back in saying that they have done 24 this year. And I ask…with how many different surgeons…5 or 6 was the answer.
More and more it looks like this is going to be a really “neat and exciting” day for the surgeon. Sorry, I’d prefer it to be a routine day for the surgeon.
I leave and head towards my 10:30 with the surgeon who according to Suburban is “directing” the surgery. I pull over in a parking lot and get on the phone. I had the names of the top two Urologists at Georgetown Univ. Hospital. I call and instead of trying to get a doctors appointment…which would have been too far into the future and useless if there was not a surgery slot open…I asked for the surgery scheduling nurse directly. After saying nothing available and chatting for awhile…”just got diagnosed…this other hospital hasn’t done many…”, Charlene (my new best friend), said I could get in at 1pm today! I’m there!
So off to Germantown to practice asking questions about the surgery, so I am really prepared for my 1pm with the #2 guy in the department. Nancy met me half-way there and then we drove together. I wanted both of us to listen and figure this stuff out.
The Germantown doc’s office is smothered with Cialis and Viagra ads and handouts. He answered the questions, but I didn’t get the feeling he really wanted me to keep drilling down. I did find out that he was the “assist” on the operation, not the director. His compatriot does the laproscopic surgeory, not him.
When I asked how many they did, he danced. The other doc just joined his practice. The dearth of information was not comforting…but I was going to Georgetown as soon as we blow this place. So I didn’t care that much.
Georgetown…we arrive. Actually have time for a small lunch. The reception in the Urology department didn’t have my name! Scarey. But then she said, “oh, you’re the guy we don’t have a name for”. We met with Charlene who put me into the system. I then met with #2 for 45 minutes. He is of my generation and only does the open version of the operation. But he reviewed the CD (that Nance picked up from Shady Grove Hospital Radiology Library) and then got their laproscopic surgeon to meet with me for another 45 minutes.
He shows us the images and answers all of the questions that the Germantown doc didn’t/couldn’t. All the news is good, tumor is fully encapsulated, not near the renal ducks or anything else. He also said I’ve had this baby for 6 years. He does as many of these operations as the other hospital does in total. He also talked about being prepared for converting the operation to “open” if there is a problem, something in his 6 years of doing this he’s never had to do. I like this guy and I like his stats!
Now, I’m off to my client for a “you’ve got a cash flow problem” discussion with the CEO. I blew him off for lunch when I got in at Georgetown. Now I had to tell him what’s up. He heard the broken ribs and kidney removal, but not the C word.
I’m home and relieved and now looking forward to a normal Thanksgiving, no surgery the Tuesday before and a rescheduled surgery with Georgetown Dec. 3rd. I’m back in that happy spot again…everything under control. I send out emails and call those that encourged me to make sure I get the best working on me.
It’s Thursday and my world of calm and readyness quickly crumbles.
So, I am doing research on what I have, prognosis and all of that. Got access to “doctor only” sites and tried to read all the latin words. I guess it doesn’t matter if you can’t read a doc’s writing…can’t understand even when it’s typed!
Essentially there are two tracks if surgery goes as expected: My life is just like anyone else who donated their kidney. Mine’s just going to the lab instead of being transplanted into someone else’s body. Or…the cancer has spread, in which case, I start planning my swan song.
The various people who I reached out to, started coming back with good questions about the surgery, who’s doing it, how many times, etc. Kent Lieginger, my son-in-law’s dad, who works for Genetech, gets some insight from his contacts there, that intensifies the need to dive back into the healthcare system and reseach what I can…and find a top ranked surgeon and hospital and get scheduled ASAP. I’ve been advised that waiting more than 2 weeks is not smart. That’s worrysome.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, Friday, at 8:00am I have a pre-op physical scheduled to make sure I’m healthy enough for surgery. The train is leaving the station and I’m not sure I want to be on it…well at least this one.
My primary care physician finally calls back. He’s out of town. We talk for 45 minutes at 8pm. The bottom line is that he does not know how many surgeries the Urologist he referred me to has done. When I asked him would he go to this guy or try to get into John Hopkins or Georgetown, he said JH or GT of course. Thursday will be a busy day.
2 days until pre-op exam and meeting with current surgeon. 6 days to scheduled surgery.
It’s Wednesday. I have meetings on site at my client. We get confirmation that I will have the surgery the next Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving. Things are calm, so I think.
I spend most of the day at client and then went to a networking event in downtown Georgetown. A product launch. My heart really wasn’t in it, but given the serendipity of the week…who knows who I might meet. So I went. It was not great, but it was free and an expensive product launch. Nobody listened to the pitch or knew why they were there, other than for the free booze. A waste of money for them. BTW: www.dubme.com is the company. It’s the least I could do since I drank their beer.
While I go back to work, have meetings, etc., also thinking about missing a real Thanksgiving dinner with the family including Joel my new son-in-law and Mike, Liz’s main squeeze for some time now, who I’d like to get to know better. Woulda been fun. I was thinking of wearing my dad’s patchwork casmer jacket (the kids hate it!)
