A Day of Waiting and Just Over 8000 Steps

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..a day in the hospital makes walking difficult

On Friday my husband went to the hospital to have his surgery on his lung. It was raining in the morning so we didn’t get out with the dog for a walk, not even a short one. When we did get to the hospital around 10:00 the waiting began. First in the reception area, then in the area I like to call the ‘holding area’ and finally in the Family Waiting Room.

After blood work, standard tests, visits from the surgeon, the anesthesiologist and finally the OR nurse, K got up from his comfy chair and walked to the operating room. Before he left our youngest daughter came to keep me company and then my friend AB showed up. The doctor said that the procedure would take about 1 1/2 hours so we decided to go to the cafeteria for a bite to eat.

We returned in what we thought was plenty of time only to discover that the doctor had come to see us while we were out. We had to wait until he finished another surgery on someone else before we could find out if K was okay.

At around 3:00 the good doctor saw us and the news was good. K had done well during the surgery, no complications and the growths appear to be non-cancerous. Yay! We have to now ‘wait’ for the results of the biopsy to be sure but the doctor said he was cautiously optimistic.

When K was admitted to his room, our oldest daughter arrived and we all had a short visit with the patient. He looked remarkably good. He was alert, had good colour and was very talkative. After a short visit we all left so that he could get some rest and I drove everyone home.

My youngest daughter stayed with me and we went back to the house to take Frances for a walk. We didn’t walk as far as we would normally but I did manage by the end of the day to get in just over 8 000 steps.

I’d like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts, good wishes and prayers. My husband is already back to his old self and has been texting me to bring him a good cup of tea this morning.

Cheers!

Welcome Home, Lucy

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….a little sore and very dopey from the meds

This afternoon my husband, K, picked up Lucy from the emergency vet hospital. When I got home I was somewhat surprised that she was up and about. She was moving somewhat slower than normal but she came to the door to greet me.

K brought Frances’ bed up from the basement for her to lie on in the kitchen while we ate dinner. She loves that old bed and Frances has been pretty gracious in giving it over to her best friend. It’s funny how dogs can sense that something is not quite normal and how well they can adapt. We thought that we might have to ship Frances out for a few days so that Lucy could rest but so far it hasn’t been an issue.

It’s hard to tell with Bassett Hounds how they’re feeling but every now and then she wags her tail so I know she’s on the mend. G and B wanted to see the obstruction so the clinic gave us the piece of ball that they removed from her intestine. Here’s the nasty offender that caused so much pain and grief.

At the moment Lucy and the bed are downstairs with us as we’re watching TV. She’s sound asleep. It’s a shame that we have to wake her in the next half hour to give her more medicine.

Don’t Let Your Dog Chew Tennis Balls

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

……after two hours of surgery they removed the offending piece of ball

Lucy loves tennis balls. G and B don’t buy them for her but she manages to find them in the park all the time. It wouldn’t be so bad if she wanted to play with them, i.e. throw and fetch, but Lucy doesn’t do that. She’d rather eat them. Up till now her special finds are taken from her but I guess she managed to sneak one past her family.

Tonight Lucy underwent surgery to remove the blockage. Part of her small intestine had to be removed as well because it started to perforate. Apparently dogs can survive quite nicely with only half of the small intestine. Currently she is in recovery and everything is progressing as it should.

I’m looking forward to seeing her tomorrow. Get a good night’s sleep Lucy and DON’T dream about tennis balls.

Waiting for News…..Any News

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…….took our grand dog to the emergency vet clinic yesterday

I just got off the phone with daughter number one on Saturday when the phone rang, literally seconds later, and I could see that daughter number two was calling me. I cheerfully picked up the phone and greeted G with an exuberant ‘Hello’. My mood turned instantly when I heard her sobs on the other end of the line.

G and her husband, B had made plans to go on a vacation cruise and they were due to leave today. Earlier in the week their dog, Lucy became quite ill and they had made a couple of trips to the vet’s office. X-rays were taken but the vet couldn’t see what the problem was. If she didn’t get better she was suppose to have an ultra sound done but lo and behold she started to eat and every one thought she was on the mend.

All was well till the wee hours of Saturday morning when Lucy took ill again and kept her family awake for hours. With very little sleep under their belts, G and B called a taxi and took Lucy to the emergency vet hospital in their neighbourhood. When G called me she was exhausted and had just been told that Lucy might need surgery.

My husband and I drove to the north end of the city to lend moral and financial support. We sat in the waiting room for awhile and then got some food for everyone. We waited 4 hours before Lucy had an ultra sound done and then another hour to get the news that she required a hospital stay and possibly surgery.

We convinced G and B to go on their trip. They would have lost all the money if they cancelled and B needed that vacation. We signed on as Lucy’s guardians and would be the contacts if Lucy’s condition worsened. Sure enough the worst case scenario happened and Lucy requires the surgery.

Now we’re waiting by the phone. Lucy is in surgery while I’m writing this post and our daughter is thousands of kilometres away waiting to hear from us.

Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well.

Stressed to the Max

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Mama Cormier

… I wasn’t worried until I got the phone call

I always feel that no news is good news. It had been two weeks since my surgery; I was feeling good; the doctor who did the surgery hadn’t call me.

Then on Tuesday night when I got home from work there was a message on the phone to call my family doctor. It could only be one of two things; something showed up in the pathology report after the surgery or something showed up after my mammogram.

The next day from my office at school I called the clinic to find out why I had to see the doctor. The problem, however, is that you don’t get to talk to the doctor or even a nurse for that matter when you call the number they give you. All appointments are routed through a main switchboard and you speak to a phone receptionist who is nowhere near the actual clinic.

I know that you shouldn’t “shoot the messenger” but it was so frustrating trying to get any information from the receptionist. I knew she didn’t have access to my files and all she could tell me was that the visit had something to do with reviewing the results of the surgery.

The next problem was setting up an appointment that didn’t require me taking off an entire day or even part of a day to see the doctor. As I’ve probably told you before I’ve lost all my accumulated sick days because of a provincial government bill and I’ve already used up 3 of my 10 days for the year. The other complication is that my so called family doctor has moved further away to an area that is a little sketchy and the clinic he did work from has shut down.

My frustration on the phone was obvious and the receptionist, to her credit, was trying to help me find a solution. Apparently it doesn’t matter which clinic you visit your records can be accessed by any of their doctors. After being close to tears, we finally figured out that there is a clinic much closer to home and that I was able to get an appointment on Friday after work.

When I hung up the phone I turned around to find a small group of my library helpers standing at my door looking a little concerned. They told me I sounded a little stressed. What an understatement. I smiled and assured them that I was fine and gave each of them a job to do.

On Friday I left school early (4:15 instead of 6:00) and drove to my appointment. My friend, L, made me promise to call her as soon as I found out what the problem was. I thought I had left myself plenty of time to make it to my appointment but I ran into some unexpected traffic and I arrived 15 minutes late. It didn’t seem to matter though because the doctor was running late as well.

I had made reservations to meet friends for dinner that night for 7:00 and when I still hadn’t gotten in to see the doctor by 6:00 I started to fret about being late. I tried to call my husband but my phone had died so I hooked it up to the doctor’s outlet while I waited. As soon as I had enough juice to make calls I started calling my husband but he wasn’t picking up anywhere. Another thing to worry about.

When the nurse came into the room to see me she asked me why I was there. I explained the phone message I had received and she looked through her records. She then asked me if the appointment was for the breast screening results. There had been no mention of that before, so now I started to worry that maybe something had shown up on the mammogram. She repeated the same question and when I told her that I didn’t think so she told me that the doctor would be in to see me after one more patient.

I think that the next 15 minutes were the longest 15 minutes of my life. It’s funny how you think the worst and how many bad scenarios take hold of your mind. What will I tell my friends at dinner that night? Will I have to take more time off of work or will I just retire early?

Finally when my ‘new’ doctor arrived he put me at ease immediately. He went through all my charts, the letters from my surgeon and the breast screening results and couldn’t find any reason for me being there. The surgery went well, the mammogram was clear and I appeared to be very healthy. He double checked everything and couldn’t figure out why my last doctor underlined and question marked some of the details of the surgery. He asked me if there was anything else he could do for me while I was there so I had him give me my flu shots.

When I finally left the office I had 10 minutes to get to the restaurant. There was no time to go home first so I called my husband for the 3rd time, still didn’t get through to him so I left another message and told him to meet me at the restaurant. When I got there our friends were already waiting and the restaurant owner offered to called K again. Still no answer. A new worry! Eventually we did connect with my husband and he finally joined us at the restaurant but that’s another story for another time.

At least I was able to enjoy the rest of the evening and I didn’t have to tell people that I had a new health issue. I’m not sure I could have stayed quiet if there had been a problem. Unfortunately I forgot to phone my friend L back and I caused her some stress for a good chunk of her evening. She did eventually reach me at the restaurant and she figured out that everything was okay.

So what did I learn? …..that no news is good news!

I wish I could have been as relaxed as this little guy was while sunning himself outside my kitchen window this morning.

A Dusting and Cleaning

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. all is well

Today I went to the hospital to have “my procedure” done. People at work knew I was having surgery but many didn’t know why and found it awkward and difficult to ask me if I was okay and why surgery was necessary. In turn I felt uncomfortable sharing that information but I didn’t want people to think that I had a life threatening condition either.

I have no problem talking about the procedure but I don’t want to make people uncomfortable either. That being said, why do we ‘pussy foot’ around what we’re having done, especially if it involves the female reproductive system? Do we whisper about other conditions that we have? No!

Men always ask if “it’s a woman’s thing?” and if the answer is yes they walk away, not wanting to know the details. Not all “women’s things” are equally weighted when it comes to determining one’s health. A hysterectomy is much more serious than a benign cyst on the uterus and cancer of the cervix is a potentially fatal condition compared to a bout of vaginitis, that is uncomfortable and somewhat painful but not life threatening.

I have to admit that we, as women, have allowed this stigma of don’t ask, don’t tell to perpetuate. Somehow, our mothers have ingrained into our consciousness that our ‘private parts’ are not to be mentioned in public company. It’s almost like we should be ashamed of the ovaries that sustain the human population. How bizarre is that?

I’m as guilty as anyone. When people asked I politely told them that I was only having day surgery and there was nothing to worry about. I wouldn’t think twice about saying I’m having a tonsillectomy, appendectomy or having my gall bladder removed. Many people are even insistent on showing off their scars after a surgical procedure. I really don’t get that but to each his own.

I have contemplated long and hard if I should publish this post. I decided that I needed to put my family’s and friends’ concerns at ease. I also didn’t want my blogging family to worry about me. So here goes. Today I had a D&C or as my friend, J, says a ‘dusting and cleaning’. D & C stands for dilation and curettage where the cervix is widened and the lining of the uterus is removed. I also had a lesion removed. It’s been sent away for testing but I haven’t heard the results. Hopefully ‘no news is good news’. My doctor’s not worried.

That’s it. All is well. If I’ve made you uncomfortable, I apologize but we need to question why female reproductive medical conditions make us feel that way. Wishing you all good health.

Cheers!