A Gift From Maya

Yesterday - September 15th -my daughter Mandy posted a picture to Facebook and somehow or other, it didn't make it to my Facebook until today when I got a notification that I had been tagged in a photo.

When I opened it, this is what I saw there!

In case you can't figure out -due to a few words that aren't spelled correctly, let me "read" it for you.

It says,
Dear Lord, I bless you to help my Grammy to be healthy and help her have a safe trip to Pittsburgh to get a test done. So will you please help her.  In Jesus name, Amen!

I am, theoretically, a cancer survivor -two times now -but in conjuction with those two go-rounds, I do have to go regularly for checkups and tests and such. In July, I was scheduled to have my regular check-up with the oncologist and, as part of that routine, I had to have a CT scan done.

That scan, however, showed some changes that had apparently been taking place within my system and as a result the oncologist here at the local Cancer Clinic scheduled me to have a PET scan then.

Well, true to form for me (what can go wrong, probably will -Murphy's Law, ya know) the PET scan revealed not just one, but two "hot spots" which meant then that the oncologist wanted to have another test done -a needle biopsy, no less!

The first -and last time -I had to have a needle biopsy, I had to go down to Pittsburgh to have it done there as the local hospital couldn't do it here. This time, though, the doctor informed me that I could have the needle biopsy done over at DuBois Hospital -which is only about a 42 mile drive, one-way, instead of having to drive about 130 miles down to Pittsburgh to have the test done.

So, okay -fine, that didn't sound like a problem to me but little did I know how long it was going to take for the staff at Dubois Hospital to get around to scheduling me for this big event.

It turned out it took them 2 1/2 weeks of the nurse at the Cancer Clinic calling them every day to try to get an appointment for me only to have them finally tell the nurse here that "Oh, we can't do that here at Dubois because that biopsy would be too deep for us to perform it here so she will have to go to Pittsburgh!"

ARRGH!

Thankfully though the nurse at the Cancer Clinic realized that the doctor I had three years ago in Pittsburgh when I had my last surgery (a hysterectomy in which they discovered I had uterine cancer) is a gynocological oncologist -just the very type of physician/specialist I needed to see for this biopsy now and she contacted his office right away so now, I have an appointment set up for September 27th (next Friday) with that doctor (Dr. Krivak) but this will not be for the needle biopsy but rather for a "first" visit (again) with him just with a new problem to be dealt with then! After my check-up/examination by him then, it will be determined if I really do have to have the needle biopsy then after all.

The only drawback to that aspect now is that the timing for getting things in place -in the event that the cancer has begun to metastisize now is that there will have been at least 4 weeks of valuable time that will have gone down the tubes before they can totally determine what is going on -and hopefully, what isn't going on within my system too, ya know!

So there you have it! I'm not worrying about whether this is malignant or not because if it is, worrying about it will help absolutely nothing!

But if it is another malignancy, then the longer it takes the doctors to make a decision, to set me up for more chemo again and all that, the more chance the cancer has to get really comfy-cozy then within my system and decide to invite more and more of the cancer's family members to come and crash land within my system.

And that, does rather provoke me, I will say that much about this issue here and now! I was of the thought that time was of the essence in treatment for this disease but apparently it's not as important to the doctors as it was in my mind!

And so, to my good friend over in Merry Olde England -the lovely blogger, Maggie Mae, at Nuts in May -it looks like you and I are both going to become well-known as two old ladies just fighting away to keep the Cancer from maintaining a permanent residence in our bodies, doesn't it?

So, tonight, I leave you with the sweet prayer my beautiful little granddaughter, Miss Maya, has provided here for me. I don't think better words could possibly be written but her words, her thoughts, her prayer for me, do you?

Wish me luck -Lord knows, I suppose I really need that and a few extra prayers -well, that's something too I definitely won't refuse, won't sneeze at, ya know!

Hopefully, I'll be back on track -getting chemo, going bald again this winter now too!