One year ago tomorrow, I had surgery to remove the tumor on my pancreas. It seems not that long ago. I remember almost everything, from the sleepless night before, and the post-surgery morphine haze, to the rogue visit with Matt to other hospital floors, and the week of unrelenting day and night visits from nurses to check vitals and take blood. And the boredom; good God the hours and days in that hospital room dragged on and on and on.
This week, I underwent my latest CT scan to check for cancer recurrence. And as if to deny me a simple milestone celebration, Kaiser made me wait two full days for the results. Two. Full. Days.
Then, the results…when they finally came, they said: “known evidence of recurrent or metastatic disease in the abdomen and pelvis.” Layman’s terms: your cancer is back.
Wait a second. That’s the summary; the detailed report shows no such evidence. I know this because I’ve read at least half a dozen of these reports before, and I scoured this one 67 times trying to understand the disconnect.
I furiously email my oncologist: WTF is going on?
Realizing my freak-out level, Dr. E. (who rarely calls) phoned seven hours later to reassure me: There was a dictation error and they dropped a word. It should have read: “no known evidence of recurrent or metastatic disease in the abdomen and pelvis.” They dropped the Most Important Word in the Whole Sentence.
Good grief. And phew.
So now, yes, we celebrate a big-deal one year of cancer freedom.