My fighting Cancer with a teenie weenie stick-Part 3

He approached me, looked at me and said he had bad news...there was a blemish found in the ultra sound.  It was about 1.5cm and instead of the right kidney it was on the left kidney.  However, it was not clear if it was a mass or fluid...thus it could be a cyst.  However to be sure...I needed to get the dreaded...here it comes...MRI.  This means another iv...contrast thru my veins...that warm wet feeling as the machine takes pictures.  They scheduled it.

I remember the doctor looking over me in my hospital room.  He looked at me and confirmed that they got the cancer and it was malignant.  I sighed a sense of relief though it was disappointing to hear it was cancerous.  I was lucky, it was caught early and I was going to be around to live another day.  Though I would be watched via X-rays and ultrasounds.  

I got to radiology.  They put on this gown...put an iv in my arm...pushed me thru this tube.  It was a tiny thing.  It squeezed me in...the headphones slipped down...no music just noise.  Breathe...stop breathing...hold it...17 seconds...we have 28 minutes of pictures to go...how do you feel?  Breathe...deep breath...hold it...this time 20 seconds...on and on and on.  Then they pulled me out of the tube...which I did not think there were gonna easily get me out.  On top of me there was some sort of lead square thing.  My hands and feet fell asleep...I hated every second of this thing.  As I closed my eyes through the MRI process...I thought to myself...it will pass...it will pass and I will go home...I was playing mind games with myself to endure the dreaded MRI.  Nothing lasts forever.

The doctor walked in and said the MRI came out ok but if it was cancer...it is in a location that may be difficult to get to.  He said because of its location, deep into the kidney, it would be tricky. Would I be ok with them removing my left Kidney.  Hell no!  I was more polite than that but NO...I only have two but if God had given me three, then maybe ok.  But I only have a less than normal sized spare and I did not like the idea of losing a Kidney.  It's like separating twins at an orphanage.  NO.  I was not about that.  He then referred me to my original surgeon.  

My hospital stay was uneventful.  I left after a week, had some problems with pain meds but got it all straightened out later.  I did get tired more often and easier.  It took every bit of the 6 weeks to recover and even after that I was still getting tired--my body was building up its stamina but surgery can be a challenge to recover from.  I did not want to go through this again.

So, Dr Park, my original surgeon looked at the MRI and concurred but he too wanted to wait to see if it would grow a little more so that it could be extracted safely without removing the kidney.  So we gave it three more months...and then off to the MRI.  That little tube that gives you a sense of entrapment.  The MRI is the one thing an illusionist cannot escape from.  

Part 4 tomorrow.