Patty's Mammie Grams

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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May 6 Re: B-9 Biopsy Results

It was B-9!!!!!
I sure wish I had thought of this title before I published the last post! I thought of it in time to send out to all the folks to which I sent the original mail. Thanks again to all of you wonderful folks out there!
We had our only group rehearsal tonight for the concert Saturday evening. I need to bone up on some words!!
And tunes. Oh. My. My neighbor tells me to just mouth the words - cuz I make her get off key. Oh. My. But I do Loves me singing. I sound just like Barbra Streisand and Jane Oliver together in my brain - and I love it.
Love to all you all. Patty ; )

Monday, May 5, 2008

May 5 Benign fibrocystic tissue with calcifications

FINALLY! They called me at about 3:30 this afternoon and said all was well. Except for my brain, which was about to explode from waiting to hear.
The spot was "fibrocystic breast changes with some calcifications", and they got all the calcifications removed with the biopsy.
This biopsy was not like the easy peasy ones before - I was clueless, before. I'm OK, now, though, and that is what matters.
Thanks to you all for all the thoughts, wishes and prayers - glad it all turned out the right way. Love to all of you-alls. Patty : )

Saturday, May 3, 2008

May 3 Wait Till Monday

I made several calls on Friday, asking why should it take so long to find out the results from this biopsy. No good answers - no one really knows - they all are just guessing - but, could be because it is the weekend. Could be because it takes 72 hours to do the labs. Could be because they do not have an in-house lab. Could be because the lab tech is out sick. Could be..... So, I'm just waiting. And waiting.
Sara's 'pretend' first swim meet was this afternoon. They have one called the Red and White meet - half of the team swimming against the other half. It is just to see if everything works that needs to work when the time comes for the first home meet -- the stop watches, the computers, the tables, the kids, do the timers know what to do, does the starter know what to do, does the announcer know what to do?
They had an ice cream social after, and that was very successful. It worked like a charm. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream, chocolate chips, caramel 'bee-bees', sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, M&M's, marshmallows, shredded coconut and chocolate syrup. YUM. yum. I had to go the second time to see if it really did work right! ; ) It did. Sure enough.
The swim meet was short and sweet, and now we know everything works, and so now we are ready for the meets to begin. I think all the meets are mostly in June - basically every Tuesday and Thursday evening.
This evening we have a pot luck at Mrs. Kersey's house with all the singers and their families. Our concert is only one week away. I know some of the music. \o/ Sara tells me that <--- is an open mouth with hands on either side of the face. Oh, dear.
Love and hugs. Patty : )

Thursday, May 1, 2008

May 1 Biopsy over

Happy May Day! I forgot what day it was until I had to put a date on something this evening and finally wrote out May instead of 5-1-08!
Radiology Ltd. called me immediately after the Dr. sent them the fax ordering the biopsy and they were able to get me in almost immediately!!! None of this 5 weeks of waiting stuff like the last one.
I was at Radiology Limited this morning at 10:00, and got back out to my car at 12:40pm. I have been a very nervous person for the past few days, and very much so this morning, so I am very glad this part is over.
As soon as I left the building, I felt the weight off my shoulders and was much more relaxed, so I guess I was just dreading the procedure lots more than I thought.
I filled out paperwork (same questions and answers as a week ago - Hello!) Then sat and waited to be called back in. I heard a husband and wife grousing at each other about "...nothing to read - look at all these people and there are only three magazines" "You know it's like this, why don't you ever learn?" I held up my book of Sudoku puzzles, and offered it to him. He said no, he didn't like them, and I said me neither at first when my daughter tried to get me to do them. I finally learned how and I'm addicted to them (just the easy ones).
He said he couldn't figure out how to do them - he was an engineer and knew math but he just couldn't figure them out. I was so proud to show him how (he accepted my offer) and listened to my hints, and thanked me for explaining it. He had always tried just filling in one box at a time. Poor guy, no one ever told him how, and he didn't have Sara's handy tutorial that she wrote up for Granddad, when she was trying to teach us how to do the puzzles.
So.. they called me back in - change into gowns (first one open in the front and second one open in the back, and took me back to the first little waiting room, where the nurse started the IV line, then another tech came in to ask ?s and take my blood pressure. Whoops! The IV was in the right arm and I'm not to have blood pressure checked in the left one because of the lymph nodes. (I only had one node taken out - shouldn't be that big of a deal - I would think.) (My medical training will be over soon, and I'll be getting my diploma then.)
Any way, she had to go ask about what to do, and came back, saying - they want me to take the pressure on the right arm - "you hold the IV in". Oh yay! So, I held down on the puncture site and held
in on the end of the butterfly do-hickey. I didn't want it flying across the room when she turned on the automatic BP machine. ; ) It did squeeze pretty tight, too. My arm is a little extra swollen just below the elbow tonight, I think probably because I left the Coban wrap on till about 6:30 tonight, and it was a little tight! Squoze me up a little too long and too tightly.
The Radiologist from Australia came in and explained what all was going to go on, and then -- off to the MRI room, more explanations etc., and me begging for an extra pad for my non-sticky-outie-rib side. I discovered an anomaly with my ribs, and it became very painful when they did the first MRI here.
I asked for something different to be done so it wouldn't hurt so much - and they already had it cushioned for me! Plus, enough other people had complained about the 'discomfort' (a medical term meaning extreme pain) that they were trying different and extra padding to make it more comfortable.
They had to take pictures, then take more pictures with the contrast injected through the IV, pull me out, the Radiologist (guy from Australia) placed the 'locater' 'wire', put me back in for more pictures to see if that was in the correct place, back out for the biopsy. Don't move a muscle during all of this, please.
Now -the placement of the marker 'wire' was fun. First a tiny mark on the skin after he had made his calculations from the pictures. Then cleansing, the lidocaine (? or something like that) injected at the skin, in a little further and then on in even deeper. Ow, ow, ow.
The locater 'wire' was hollow, then he inserted the Dremel, or the hand blender, or the dentist drill, or the mixer - all the things everyone thought was the sound it made. The Dr. said an electric knife.
I didn't look quickly enough before they disposed of it, but one of the nurses said it looks like a Braun hand blender and the Dr. holds it sideways against the skin. It has a long 'screwdriver-looking' bit on the end that has an auger (!) on it and it just scoops out a section and suctions it in a little to hold it, then that is what they sent off.
They told me it would take 5 days to get the results - I hope not! The last biopsy I learned the next afternoon. Maybe next time I'll learn not to have things done on Thursdays! Too close to the weekend.
I've had ice on it off and on all the rest of the day. Went for my choir extra rehearsal and we sound so good with our Latin piece. We are working really hard and I hope lots of you can come to the concert!

Again - Saturday, May 10,
7:30 pm (!) (not 7:00 as I had previously erroneously stated!) at Christ Church United Methodist, 655 N. Craycroft.
I'm in need of sleep, so I'll stop here - any questions - post them in the comment section - the guest book doesn't work anymore - sorry if you've put something up there - I don't get anything anymore.
Love and hugs and kisses and thanks for all your well wishes. I got several notices of bad e-mail addresses - most of which I know are correct, so, I'll try those again - but if someone in your family feels left out - sorry - I'm going to try to re-send them. Maybe it was just too large of an address line.
Peace out. Patty OXOX : )