Tuesday and Wednesday was spent waiting and de-cluttering the children's rooms and re-arranging furniture (thanks to mum and john for their help and support!).
Thursday was the day to speak with the specialist, at 3pm - so GT and I decided to do some retail therapy, see a movie (Robin Hood - it was pretty good) and have some lunch at the pub with a couple of white-wine chasers to settle the nerves.
Dr Harris, confirmed the diagnosis of lymphoma - and wanted to do more tests. Chemotherapy was on my next week's agenda. No operation is possible because of so many other vital organ's are in the stomach area, however this type of cancer does respond very well to chemo.
Poppy and Vicki look after the Girls on Friday while I get more tests.
So Friday 28th May, at 9am I had the unpleasant experience of a bone marrow biopsy, where they juice-up the flesh on the hip with a local and ask you lots of questions about your kids, to try and distract you from the feeling that a cork-screw is being pushed in and out of your hip! All I can say is I have a whole new perspective AND empathy for children who suffer cancer and have to do that type of procedure. It actually really upsets me to think a little kid would have to go through that!
With a pain in my butt, I'm asked to roll over and give another three test-tubes of blood and high-tail it out of there to RPA for a PET (positron emissions tomography) scan. Reality starts to set in when you are sitting in a waiting room full of cancer patients.
After a while I'm put into a little room to be juiced-up with radioactive stuff, so the PET scan can be done an hour later. Although the first nurse couldn't get the needle into my arm and instead of just having another go - she decided to take 5 minutes to jiggle-wiggle it to see if she could "save it". I wasn't really impressed with this - you know how descriptive my body language can be - so in comes the next nurse who has another go, in another arm and gets it in first go. Thankfully!
Off GT goes to the pub, and I am left to sit and wait. (I love ipods!)
The PET scan took about 20 minutes, I think I dozed off. The whole event was painless. Off to recovery room for the best apple juice and cheese sandwich in town!
After that, GT and I were a bit stuck. Because I was still technically "radioactive" and needed to stay away from children under 5 and pregnant women so we decided to head back to Hornsby to see Dr Harris with our results. Which she had already received. I was met with the need for another test to be done on Monday. Apparently, although the PET scan was suggesting the "lump" is fast growing, (which is my gut feeling too!), the CT guided biopsy suggests was not. To get the cocktail of chemo drugs right, another test needs to be done - a keyhole biopsy - to ensure Dr Harris has a "complete" picture.
As I was still "radioactive", GT and I put our heads together and decided that the only real place to not be near children under 5 and pregnant women - was the pub. So off we went to the local Bowling Club for a couple of relaxing bevies, 5 G&T's for me - and I managed to take the edge off a very stressful week!
Saturday we had Rhys, Corynne and Zara to visit, caught up with Shona, Mark and the kids, Nana and John popped in briefly and so did Grant from the Rifle Range.
Jessica, Brooke and baby Jacinta.
Sunday we are catching up with my Dad, Elaine and the family for Dad's fantastic wood-fired pizzas. We had a call from Ale in England - he has a terrible english accent for an argentinian! Dad's pizza's are fantastic and he has definately got it down to a fine art. Thanks to Jo and Tim for keeping my glass half full, and to Nads for visiting me after a hectic weekend of her own.
Dad and Elaine, with Pizza
Tim, Michele, Jo and GT
Tamara, Jessica, Brookie and Kirsten
Michele and Nadine
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