Thursday, March 15, 2007
CANCER JOURNAL
Three scans done. One to go. Now I know that I can actually lie motionless for an entire hour without going stir crazy. It was actually easier to do than I had expected.
Apparently for the next three days I have the potential to set off radiation monitoring equipment and so they gave me a card to carry that explains why. Interesting to watch the technician take a canister out of a lead case, open the canister, and shoot the stuff into your arm. Twice. But no afterglow.
I met a couple of other patients who were also getting tested. One lady has lymphoma and is at the end of her chemo. She was wearing a scarf so I assumed she had no hair and was anxious to talk with her. She confirmed that all of her hair had fallen out, including eyebrows and eyelashes and the hair on her arms. But the amazing thing is that she was quite upbeat, or at least seemed to be. She told me that one of her kids had not talked to her since January, even though the girl knows she has cancer. The girl is pregnant by a man who is nearly twice her age, and who has been in jail. I prayed for this lady while I was having the PET scan done, and we hugged before she left the facility.
Another lady who was also there for testing is 40 years old, has a two-year-old, a one-year-old, and a three-month old who she was breast feeding when she learned five days ago that she has breast cancer. She, too, was positive and determined to beat it. "I have three kids, I have to beat it" she told me.
Then there was a member of the staff of the facility who went out of her way to get information for me about where to buy a wig.
I have met some amazing people since discovering I have cancer, and I appreciate them more than I normally would because I need them more than I normally would.
