Biopsy Recovery

The next day after my third or fourth dose of Hydrocodene was working its magic my wife drops the bomb that the doctor told her it was cancer. I think she was reluctant to come right out and say it and it was hard for her and she wasn’t sure what my reaction would be. I think I took it pretty well since I had figured out that things weren’t normal and I was way beyond the “Take two anti-biotics for ten days and call me if it doesn’t work” stage.

Biopsy Surgery

The biopsy was today at 2pm (only 20 days after my first visit to my primary care doctor!). I think the surgery would have started right on time but Dr Nemechek and I got talking for a while in pre-op.

While I'm in recovery (from general anesthesia, a buttload of pain and a serious lack of cute nurses) Dr Nemechek talked to my wife and mom and gave them the news that it was a tumor that was removed and his diagnosis that it was cancerous. He didn't tell me anything, but that's OK because I was kind of out of it anyhow. About all I knew was that to get out of recovery I had to do three things: eat a bowl of Jello, get my oxygen blood level up and take a whiz. Being groggy from pain meds makes it tough to take a full breath of air so they give you this two handed cylinder thing with a rather phallic looking tube thing that comes out of the cylinder that you breath out of. Well, after much giggling and playing with the phallic looking tube (it extends and you can make it “dangle” various directions much to the disgust of your wife and every nurse on the floor) I finally got my blood oxygen up to the correct level. The Jello was next and it was very easy as I hadn’t eaten any solid foods since the prior night. Taking a whiz was greatly aided when the nurse hooked me up to a brand new IV bag of saline, cranked it to full drip and included a new dose of pain meds. I had never become so dizzy in such a short period of time. I literally had to lay down and let it pass. But a few minutes later it was Mission Accomplished in the bathroom.

We stopped for a Jamba Juice on the way home that night after being released at 8 pm. I had no idea what was going on but the cool, fruity nature of the Jamba Juice worked great on my burning throat.

Pre-Admit Tasks

I was at the hospital for pre-admit paperwork and blood tests.

First Visit with the ENT Oncologist

Dr Nemechek is very nice, provides lots of information, we had a great conversation and in the end, after looking at my throat, he basically says, "That's not right." The upshot is that he needs to check on some things and he'll call me back. Two days later (a Friday) I'm on the light rail headed to the Colorado Rockies game (ticket arranged for by the Knights of Colombus) along with my 13 year old son, 4 of his friends and a couple thousand other close friends that I have yet to meet when I get the call that he wants to do a biopsy. I'm taking 27 boys to Boy Scout camp the next week. Dr Nemechek says it isn't a problem we'll do the biopsy the following week.

Appointment Scheduled with the ENT Oncologist

My primary care doctor’s office called (after my wife is out of the hospital at home recovering) with the referral to the ENT. I called right away and the ENT doctor has an opening for next week. The appointment was made but I gave the same pitch about how flexible I am and they give me the yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, like that never happens. A couple hours later they call back like I just won the lottery as they had a new patient cancel an appointment for the following morning, June 17th. Someone is obviously looking out for me - I should have run right out and BOUGHT a lottery ticket.

First Visit

After drawing blood from my throat (it itched so I scratched it) using my toothbrush I had Cathy take a look at my throat. Her response was, "That doesn't look right". I looked at it and said the same thing.

So I scheduled an appointment to see my primary care physician. All I could get at the time was the physician's assistant and I figured that was better than nothing. The appointment was a few days off but I had explained the symptoms to them and said I was very flexible so I could come in with just a few moments notice. Sure enough, a day later they called and said they had a cancellation. Bam! I was there in 15 minutes. The Physician's Assistant takes a look and says, "That's not right" and calls in the doctor himself who says the same thing and says he is going to refer me to an ENT specialist. Little did I know that it was an ENT Oncologist (one that deals specifically with cancer). I still had enough time to get home and take my wife to the hospital for her scheduled full hysterectomy at the hospital, though she was a bit put off that I cut it so close.