Today is biopsy day. Relatively calm. Huge breakfast. Oatmeal with banana, blueberries and raisin. One fried egg with toast and side of avocado. Coffee. Still hungry. Nerves? Two pancakes with syrup on bottom and wild blueberry jelly on top. There. That feels good. Nerves. Naww……………I don’t feel it on the outside so it must be in my subconscious. That breakfast was for the size of a wrestler………..not me…………
Finally, it was 11:30. We piled into the car, the three of us……..Paul, Kathy and I.
Appointment for noon. Kathy and I walked into lobby and checked in while Paul parked the car. Then we were sent to the registration desk. Something about they were missing one of the blood tests. So waited for blood test. Still feeling calm.
Nurses very pleasant. Then walked to radiology Dept. where I was put into a room and given a gown and bag for my belongings. New nurses very pleasant and helpful. Blood pressure higher than usual. Am I feeling some anxiety? No, but it does show up in my BP.
Doctor comes in and he regales me with a fascinating story, after hearing about my dancing and teaching passengers Ballroom Dancing on Cruise Ships.
His story more interesting. He went to the Ukraine to treat a wealthy patient. He was given complementary seats to Ukraine’s version of Dancing With the Stars. He was throughly enjoying the show and deeply impressed with how athletic the dancers appeared to be when all of a sudden the entire theater was filled with the sound of every cell phone ringing. And soon he could hear crying and screaming. Russia had just invaded the Ukraine.
Interesting how something you read in the newspaper or watch on TV suddenly becomes alive in the personal retelling of a tragedy.
He then became totally silent and went about his work of taking my two biopsies; one from the bump in my arm and the other in my lymph nodes near my underarm. He shot me with Lidocaine, a local anesthetic to dull any pain. A brief prick and heat and then he started. I had my right arm up and my head faced the other way and just meditated and before I knew it, he was finished. The biopsies will be sent to Pathology and when I receive the results, you will be the first to know.
