Of CT Scans and Staples

Is there anything worse than having to wait hours in a hospital/doctor waiting room?

That was my day in a nutshell. I had an appointment for a CT Scan this morning. For those of you unfamiliar with the experience, patients are usually required to drink bottles of water containing a metallic element, I believe Bromide. This help the radiologist get a better picture. Well my urologist didn't believe it was necessary, so I never got any of the bottles. When I arrived, the radiologist decided i should have them - three bottles, one every hour. They gave me one to drink there, and one to take with me. I was to come back in two hours and drink the third and final. So that's two hours right there, which my wife and I spent picking up some item at Wal-Mart.

Finally when it was time for the scan I went in, to be pleasantly surprised by the fact that I didn't have to change into one of those horrid hospital gowns. I laid down on the CT bed, and got scanned. It was a little weird, especially when they injected me with a solution that made me warm all over and, to be perfectly blunt, gave me the sensation that I had wet myself. Fortunately the experience lasted about 20 minutes, and I was out of there quickly.

From there, I had to go to the urologist and get my staples removed. His office was packed and we ended up waiting there for 2 hours. It is at this point that I'd like to mention i had not eaten anything in about 9 hours, and had three bottles of water in me. Eventually I did get in. Dr. Beebe informed me that the CT scan looked good and he was 95% sure everything was as it should (No CT scan ever comes out perfectly clean, but what was found in my scan was not cause for alarm.) Snip snip went the staples, replaced with a sticky tape.

Next up is a date with an oncologist, which will get set up tomorrow. I also have another follow up visit with Dr. Beebe in a month.

I continue to feel well and in good spirits. I can pick up my daughter now, and sneezing is no longer unbearable. Thanks to all for the well-wishes and prayers!

I Haven't Done Any Of These Lately

You Are Ernie

Playful and childlike, you are everyone's favorite friend - even if your goofy antics get annoying at times. You are usually feeling: Amused - you are very easily entertained You are famous for: Always making people smile. From your silly songs to your wild pranks, you keep things fun. How you life your life: With ease. Life is only difficult when your friends won't play with you!

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Happy Birthday Nick!

My brother turns 16 today! Drive safely bro!

Lights Out

Random observations here:

It's been raining all day today. As I was driving home for lunch, I couldn't help but notice a number of cars driving without their headlights on. I was always taught that when the weather was bad enough for you to need windshield wipers, you had to put your lights on. This is especially true in the Shenandoah Valley region, where we're high enough up to get lots of fog during rainstorms. But it seems like a large portion of the driving community around here just don't bother. How large a group you ask? Well, I decided to count how many mobile cars I saw sans headlights on my way back to work. I counted 14 cars in a 2.5 mile stretch along some well traveled roadways. Granted, I probably saw over a hundred cars total, but doesn't 14 seem high to you? It does to me. Later that evening when it was darker, it appeared everyone had their headlights on. So I guess I can't classify this as people being stupid so much as just being "not bright".

That was a bad pun even for me...

So What Else Is New?

Since I've gotten back into the blogging habit again, it seems like I should write and catch everything up on whats been happening since I last regularly posted in June. I'll try to keep this short and simple:

Home Life/Victoria: Pretty much the same thing here, as most new and exciting stuff revolves around the little one. We did manage to take a trip up to New York over the summer to see the Red Sox play the Yankees at the soon to be demolished Yankee Stadium. It was wet and rainy, and my Sox unfortunately lost, but it was a good trip and the baseball fan in me was glad to see such a historic stadium, especially Legends Feild. Victoria continues to grow by leaps and bounds. On the plus side, she's as cute as ever , her vocabulary has grown to a point where I can actually have a small conversation with her, and she's shown a real fondness for music, dancing, books and coloring. On the downside, she's started the terrible twos early. She quite determined to get her way and isn't shy to throw a fit or exaggerate an boo-boo. Despite this, she remains my perfect little princess.

Family: the big news here is that I became an uncle again! My brother Andy and his girlfriend decided to adopt a newborn, who was born November 19th. Welcome to the family Cameron Michael! My mom is doing very well. She recently returned to work and has just started the last stage of her treatment. She's in good spirits and things are going very well. Also along the new uncle vein, Meredith's brother Mark and his girlfriend are expecting in March, and my niece Angelina had the first of her procedures to remedy the cleft lip. Her beautiful smile is even better now.

Work: I'm still working at both LCC and Radio Shack. LCC recently moved to a more visible location in Staunton, and as result we've gotten more customers, which keeps me quite busy. I'm still enjoying both jobs, even if all those hours wear me out sometimes.

And finally, to those who've had birthdays since I last blogged regularly: Happy Birthday (Belated) to my wife Meredith, siblings Andy and Tess, Goddaughter Gail, nephew Cameron, and sibs-in-law Ronald, Inez, Ryan, and Tiffany!

Follow Up Appointment

Today was my follow up appointment with the urologist, Dr. Beebe. The biopsy of the mass did find some malignant elements. However, the rest of the results indicate that it did not spread anywhere and that most likely everything went away with the surgery. Unfortunately, when dealing with cancer, "most likely" isn't how you want to end things. So I'm still traversing that bump in the road. Next Tuesday I go in for a CT scan, where they'll check my chest, lungs, and pelvic region for any signs of spreading. From there it looks like a visit with an oncologist. From what I gather there are a couple different routes I can take, but whichever path it looks like I'll be closely monitored for the next 3 years or so.

As to how I'm feeling, I'm good. It's obviously still sore, and I still need help putting on my socks and shoes, but the pain has been minimal, everything is healing as it should, and I'm in good spirits. I even get the staples taken out next Tuesday.

More to come later. Thanks for all the comments!

Recovering At Home

I have never had surgery before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I got to the hospital and was led into the recovery room (by a nurse who just so happened to be a friend of my brother-in-law Ronald and was actually at my wedding reception - small world!) From there I got to change into those lovely hospital gowns and then get hooked up to all the standard equipment. The nurses took really good care of me and kept my anxiety to a minimum. Although I opted to stay awake and have the anesthesiologist numb just the lower half of my body, I ended up falling asleep before the procedure began - missed it completely. By the time I awoke it was all done and I was back in the recovery room. I went home later that day.

So now I'm recovering, and I've spent most of my time in the recliner. I'm obviously quite sore, but so far the pain hasn't been any worse than say a leg cramp. I have to keep my groan area iced for 24 hours, take a single pill of ibuprofen every 6 hours for the next two days, and have Percocet as needed (Works wonderfully, but doesn't last as long as I'd like). Honestly, the worst part of all this is that I can't lift my daughter up for a whole week. Still, I should be fine to return to work on Tuesday, so long as I don't overdo it.

That's about it. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!

A Little Less Nutty

Our story so far...

Last Friday (Black Friday as it is more commonly known), I felt a lump on one of my testicles. I managed to get to the doctor Wednesday, and got some blood work done. Yesterday, I treated myself to an ultrasound, after which I was told I most likely had a tumor. Today was a visit with the urologist. The good news was that the blood work came back and the test markers for a cancerous tumor were negative. What they now think I have is a teratoma, which is a technically still a tumor, but more along the lines of a mass of tissue and such that's taken over my right nut. Needless to say it's got to go, and I have surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning. It's an outpatient procedure - I'll be home later that day, and back to work on Tuesday.

I'm rather upbeat about the whole ordeal. It suck that a part of me has to be removed, but given how this could have turned out, I've never been so happy to lose a testicle. You could say I gave my right nut for a better outcome (*groan - I apologize, I've been making these sophomoric jokes all week!)

I'll post again with an update after the surgery. In the meantime, keep me in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow!