 |
| Empty "Employee of the Month" and "Employee of the Year" parking places. Apparently when you're that good, you get Saturdays off! |
He entered the room like a musician taking the stage at a concert, acting as if we had been waiting for his performance for hours. In truth, we had been waiting for them to show for hours so we were rather happy to see him. He introduced himself, but I wasn't even listening to his name. His body language was far to loud to hear anything else. He is young looking, but probably in his early 40's with dark wavy hair and bronzed skin that suggests he doesn't spend every waking moment inside this hospital as all our other doctors do. A shiny gold earring hung from his left ear and caught our eyes as it reflected the low light in the room. He was wearing a pair of faded low rise jeans held up by a fancy belt that probably costs more than my entire wardrobe. His shoes were gray leather with sharp angles that are so bizarre looking that I can only assume they are the current trend in Europe.
He was holding a flashlight in his hand that he was switching on and off as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other in quick movements that made him look like he was dancing. Everything about him reminded me of Uncle Jesse from the old TV show "Full House." This character was played by John Stamos and was the heart throb of every pre teen girl in the late 80's and early 90's.
Uncle Jesse, MD, as we will call him, looked in Will's mouth then asked him about his hair. Willie was wearing a ski hat and explained that we had shaved his head because his hair was falling out.
"It's going to come back different," he said as if the status of Will's hair is the most pressing thing on our minds "It may come back grey or curly...."
Will just stared at him. It was kind of funny, actually, because this is the furthest thing from our minds right now, but apparently this doctor felt we needed to know.
"It will probably go back to normal after a while," he added "but it may be different at first."
We thanked him for his unsolicited information and he nodded.
"Today will just be more of the same," he continued "we're just waiting to take the next biopsy on Monday to see what those results say."
We asked if Carl would be available to do that and no one seemed to know if he will be here or not.
"There are plenty of other good doctors that can do the biopsy" Dr. Uncle Jesse said "If Carl can't do it, we'll find someone else who can!"
This was entirely the wrong thing to say. Our resident Dr. who has been with us for a few weeks actually cringed when he said this. She knows the difference Carl made in easing Will's anxiety and has been trying to arrange for us to have him again.
"I would prefer to have Carl do it." Will said, politely.
"Well, if we can't get Carl we'll send in two of the girls so they can switch off it they get tired."
!!!!
Surely he must be joking! Sadly, he wasn't. Does he really think it's a good solution to send in two girls to do the work of one Carl?
The resident could sense our frustration so she jumped in and said she would work on getting Carl scheduled for us for Monday. We're crossing our fingers that he will be available.
Dr. Uncle Jesse shook his hair back away from his face with a full body movement that involved an Elvis hip shake.
"We're going to be contacting your siblings this week for a lab draw to see if they are a bone marrow match." He said, matter of factly.
We nodded and he must have assumed that meant we had no questions.
"Ok then," he said, heading toward the door "We'll see you later then."
There were a million questions I wanted to ask, but he was already on his way out the door. We have known from the moment we entered the hospital that they would need to test Will's siblings to see if they are matches for a possible transplant. They told us from the beginning that this is just something that is routinely done just in case the need arises. We haven't revisited the topic until today and something about the way he delivered it made us feel like he was telling us a transplant was imminent.
There was a lot of anxiety in the room in the wake of the team of doctors.
"I don't want to put my siblings through that!" Will said, referring to the bone marrow transplant.
"They would gladly do that for you!" I corrected him "and besides, they're not saying you NEED a transplant, they just want to see if your siblings match just in case."
His humility continues to amaze me. I can't confidently say that I would think of my sibling's health when my health was worse off. I know his brother or sister would gladly give him their healthy marrow without a second thought. I would give him mine if I could!
The thought of a bone marrow transplant is terrifying to me. I know nothing about the process so it brings to mind images of medal rods and traction devices. We did some Internet research and our fears were eased when we discovered that it is nothing like I imagined. There are several different methods, but the most common is administered via IV much like a blood transfusion. Once the new cells enter the blood stream they work their way into the bone marrow to get busy making good cells. There are a lot of other methods, but nothing was worse than a bone marrow biopsy so if he can do that, he can do anything!
This journey has taught us that the fear of things is almost always worse that the reality. We will continue to move forward with complete trust in our doctors that they will do the things that will be best for Willie. Our best case scenario will be that the chemo will work and this next bone marrow biopsy will show no cancer cells. That scenario will allow us to come home soon and continue maintenance care from home. We know, however, that this may not happen and we may be here for a while longer.
This is our trial right now and it is not not scheduled according to our time table! I suppose that is the nature of a trial though, if it happened in our timing and according to our desires then it wouldn't be hard! And if it wasn't hard then we wouldn't grow. So in the end, we are stronger because we have no control.
We do have control over our faith though and that can't be shaken. We know we will walk out of this with our heads held high. There is a scripture that says "there will be no witness until after the trial of your faith." This is our trial of faith and we know we will receive blessings beyond our comprehension from this trying moment in our lives.
Because it is only a moment.
Thanks again to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. We are beating this one day at a time thanks to you all!
Have a great weekend! The Giants have started it off right with a win today!
See you all on Monday!
No comments:
Post a Comment