We live sort of out in the country, so it's very dark at night. We have a rather large dusk-to-dawn light over our garage that has worked great for the last 11 years we've lived here, and we've only had to change the humongous bulb maybe twice. Lately, however, the light has been less dependable, shining on some nights and then not working for the next several nights. There's no rhyme nor reason for this phenomenon. We jokingly refer to it as either "the light gods are with us tonight" or they're not.
It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote in my blog. To update the situation (and keep the details accurate in my mind), the biopsy done on the lymph node near Ed's heart thankfully showed no malignancy. So, it was decided, that the course of action going forward would be surgery to remove the mass(es) in the right lung. Surgery was scheduled for the following Wednesday, September 9, with pre-admission testing to be done on Tuesday the 8th, the day after my birthday.
We spent my birthday, which was Labor Day, with our daughter, her husband, and our granddaughter, Delilah, who is almost five. Our son had plans and couldn't join us. My daughter's family had just adopted a new puppy a couple of days before. It was decided that, after initial plans for a celebratory dinner out fell through, we would have a simple dinner at our house and enjoy our family time and meeting the new puppy. Ed was unable to eat, but he enjoyed watching Delilah and the puppy play.
The following day, he felt well enough to drive himself to pre-admission testing, as I had an appointment with a client with my small web design business. The doctor's office called shortly after he returned home from the pre-admission testing. They told him the surgery planned for the following day was postponed, pending clearance from a cardiologist. It seemed as though something was different from his EKG than the one he'd had the previous week. The lung doctor's office told us they would make an appointment for him with a cardiologist and proceed with re-scheduling the surgery after the cardiologist gave his approval.
What followed was another long, agonizing week of waiting. I have to mention that there was one night that Ed's pain was so intense that he literally cried out a time or two from the rib pain. That night, neither of us slept at all. He then began taking the prescription pain medication on a regular basis. Finally, on Monday, September 14, we got the call from the lung doctor's office saying the cardiologist appointment would be Wednesday the 16th. Two days later, we met Dr. Scott Duffy, the cardiologist. He was very gentle and concerned, taking his time to explain that Ed would need a stress test, and he would have to score either a "low" or "moderate" risk on the stress test before the surgery could be performed. The chemical stress test was scheduled for 9 AM, Friday, September 16.
Praying the light gods are with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment