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Bad NewsFeel the fear and do it anyway.
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Thursday, October 2, 2003
Two years ago: New Monitor
Three years ago: Silences
Five years ago: Pouting
Six years ago: Ballroom Dance
I still felt bad when I woke up today, but I waited on calling the clinic because Jack had to go over to the agency who's looking for work on his behalf -- a meet and greet, not an interview for a specific job.
I called the Country Doctor clinic when he got home around noon, and they could see me at 1:30. It's close to my place, just over on 19th Avenue. I was seen by Dr. Chao, who was very nice. The first bit of bad news for the day: they tested my blood sugar and it was way high, high enough that I very likely have diabetes. This was a shock!
Because they don't do intravenous fluids at the clinic, and Dr. Chao was worried that I might be dehydrated, she sent us to the emergency room over at Providence Hospital. Jack dropped me off and went to park, but while I was waiting I got so nauseated that I threw up on the floor of the restroom right there! They took us to a treatment room fairly quickly and got the IV started. A while after that they moved us to a room in the back area of the ER, spaces for three people but there was no one else there. Jack used the computer at the nurse's station to check his email.
The emergency room doc talked to me about the various symptoms I'd been having, and decided to have an ultrasound done. He was thinking maybe that my gall bladder was troubling me in addition to the diabetes. So I was rolled down to the ultrasound room in the basement. I was interested to see that the machine had a special holder for the bottles of gel that was heated.
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After the ER doc conferred with the radiologist and the ultrasound tech, we got the bad news, the really bad news. The scan showed "masses" on both ovaries, along with fluid in my abdomen. This combination is strongly indicative of ovarian cancer.
What a shock! I felt afraid, and also so bad for Jack -- his first wife had some health problems, and now this! The ER doc conferred with the Country Doctor doc who was on call, and they decided I didn't need to stay all night; I got prescriptions for glyburide for the diabetes, cipro (oh yeah, I had a bladder infection also), and pain meds (I got that one filled but ended up not taking any). I ended up taking a glyburide when we got home, and falling into bed.
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