April 15th, 2021 (Thursday)
It is amazing how dates become a gentle reminder of an event that you chose to be special on the same day you are having esophageal cancer related appointments. My Little Free Pantry Judkins Park turned one year old today! Sadly, I could not celebrate with the visitors, donors and my community earlier today. The positive is that we will celebrate on Saturday when I will have a break from appointments and have an opportunity to catch my breath. What a whirlwind three weeks this esophageal cancer has been. Yet, I chose to see that life is still beautiful. 🙏💜
Luckily, I have a friend/coordinator who has offered to help get the pantry ready to celebrate its first birthday special occasion this Saturday! I will order some cupcakes, some treats for treat bags, balloons and bubble bottles for the kids and the adults with young hearts. 😀
Today was a day of appointments. The first one was to meet the surgeon, Dr. Farhood Farjah and his assistant at the UW Hospital on NE Pacific Avenue and off 15th Avenue NE. Unfortunately, Dr. Farjah was running very late and I had to get to the next appointment, a PET scan at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance on Eastlake (a 30 minute ordeal with traffic, getting a parking garage ticket, checking me in at the front desk and have me calm for the appointment). Damon was getting visibly upset because he did not want us to miss my PET scan as he knew how important this appointment was. What we didn't realize was that the appointment was not the ultrasound that we were lead to believe. That appointment is tomorrow.
I definitely need to write this all down in a notebook. Although, Amanda has an online calendar set up for all my doctor appointments. I am so blessed to have her as she is so organized and doesn't miss a thing. Thank God!
The appointment with Dr. Farjah allotted us 40 minutes for the visit. BUT, he was running late and could only give us 15 minutes so that we would not miss the appointment at the Eastlake Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. He went over the surgery information IF we were to have it later down the road. It sounded like Chemo and Radiation were the first and foremost to get started once we all get the results from today's PET scan. Dang! That appointment was a doozy!
I am claustrophobic and was not warned that I would be in this machine for 15 minutes with NO breaks. My back was hurting so bad but didn't want to say anything or complain. I had to grin and bear it...right through the whole thing with tears rolling down my face. It was frigging painful all over.
Once we were done, I got up to go to the bathroom and could not hold back the tears of pain and the fear of claustrophobia. I was glad to get home right after (this appointment lasted 3 hours). Good thing I stopped drinking 11 years ago! Or else I would not be typing today's blog entry.
Back to the short 15 minutes given to us by Dr. Farjah, he explained a little about the esophagus and the stomach areas. If things didn't get better after Chemo and Radiation, surgery was going to be our last resort. This is the understanding I got. I will ask my oncologist, Dr. Marzbani, on Monday, April 19th about it. I think I better start using the video notes that Amanda told me about - a feature on my cell phone. This was a day of just being overwhelmed with all that information throughout the day.
I am going to bed early as I have a 7:30am appointment at the UWMC Endoscopy to have another endoscopy procedure but adding an ultrasound. So, no eating (not that I was able to do anyway) after 8pm. AND that means NO Ensure! Yep, I am starting to like it. I can drink 3-4 bottles of Ensure...chocolate flavor, please! 😀 I still need to get up to 2,000 calories A day! And my last dose of pain medication until after the procedure.
I will write more tomorrow. Hope your day was a good one with that great weather out there!!
Life is truly still beautiful.
Lien 💜💛
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