Miracles and Wonders
Immediate?
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This was our first encounter with the difference in the meaning of even simple words
when you are the one with cancer. The doctors all said that the surgery would be
immediate or that they would get it scheduled right away, but to us it seemed to take
forever. First we waited to get an appointment with the surgical oncologist, then we
waited for test results, then we waited to schedule the surgery which required meeting
with an anesthesiologist. All of this seemed to move so slowly, especially when we
would have to call for an appointment and could only get through to an answering
machine. We'd spend hours waiting for a call back or leaving additional messages while
watching the clock move rapidly toward 5pm knowing that that would push everything
back by a day (or three when it happened on a Friday).
All of this waiting seemed to add up to a huge delay even though in reality it was only a
little over a week. The real problem was that by this point we knew that Deb's
abdominal tumor had grown to at least the size of a softball within only a few months
and that it had spread into her lymph nodes almost immediately indicating that it was a
very aggressive cancer, so the thought of leaving it untreated for even a week while
awaiting surgery was almost too much to bear. During this time we were constantly
telling anyone who would listen that we wanted to move as fast as possible, and asking
if there was anything we could do to get the appointments any sooner. And every ime
the medical people we spoke to tried to reassure us that nothing bad was going to
happen in just a week so there was no need to be so anxious ... but that's easy to say
when the cancer isn't growing in your abdomen.
when you are the one with cancer. The doctors all said that the surgery would be
immediate or that they would get it scheduled right away, but to us it seemed to take
forever. First we waited to get an appointment with the surgical oncologist, then we
waited for test results, then we waited to schedule the surgery which required meeting
with an anesthesiologist. All of this seemed to move so slowly, especially when we
would have to call for an appointment and could only get through to an answering
machine. We'd spend hours waiting for a call back or leaving additional messages while
watching the clock move rapidly toward 5pm knowing that that would push everything
back by a day (or three when it happened on a Friday).
All of this waiting seemed to add up to a huge delay even though in reality it was only a
little over a week. The real problem was that by this point we knew that Deb's
abdominal tumor had grown to at least the size of a softball within only a few months
and that it had spread into her lymph nodes almost immediately indicating that it was a
very aggressive cancer, so the thought of leaving it untreated for even a week while
awaiting surgery was almost too much to bear. During this time we were constantly
telling anyone who would listen that we wanted to move as fast as possible, and asking
if there was anything we could do to get the appointments any sooner. And every ime
the medical people we spoke to tried to reassure us that nothing bad was going to
happen in just a week so there was no need to be so anxious ... but that's easy to say
when the cancer isn't growing in your abdomen.