The End of the Road - December 29 - January 5

The last few days have been like nothing I have ever experienced (and hope to never again).

Thursday morning I was in great pain and knew I had to get off the ship and go to a hospital.  I was taken off in a Broward County rescue ambulance by the nicest (and not hard on the eyes) young men.  Once in the hospital, I was given a hospital gown and an emergency room gurney (not real comfortable) and stayed there.  I was in spot Yellow A which is in the hallway next to the nurses station.

During the day I was given the usual blood test, urine test, chest X-ray, etc.  At about 6:30 I was taken for an MRI.  A few hours later, the ER doctor came to give me results I never would have thought of.  I had a broken (compressed?)L1 vertebrae and spots of cancer.  Way too much to absorb.  

In the middle of the night, they had found a room in the ER in which they took me so I would be out of the hall.  They had a room for me on 4North in the morning and I was then in my new home away from home.    I had another MRI during the early evening which took longer than the one before.  Dr.  Klinger (who is a neurosurgeon ) came in to check in since he was off that weekend.  

Two other doctors dropped in over the weekend (I was in pain and getting pain meds every four hours so the two days are very fuzzy - I slept a lot).  Dr. Klinger came in Sunday night and reviewed Monday’s surgery.  He was not happy I still had not had a chest and back CT scan so he made sure I had one.  (Getting on and off those little planks for the MRI and CT scans really hurt with back pain ).

Just after 7:30 am I was wheeled to the OR.  They asked lots of question, many multiple times (they had said they would) and got me ready for the Kyphoplasty and get tissue for a biopsy.  The kyphoplasty is where they take a cement like substance that rebuilds the space between vertebrae’s.  Any doctors reading this, that may not be a quite accurate description- I am not doing well comprehending everything right now - feel free to correct me.

They also took tissue to try to figure out the source of the cancer.  I woke up after 11:00 and thought I was in Cape Town.  ????  I finally figured out where I was.  Everything had gone well.

Monday afternoon, Pete and Judy came by to see me.  They are two of the people I was supposed to eat dinner with and go on the safari.  It was great to see them.

Over Tuesday and Wednesday, I had visits from Dr. Maini, Dr. Occy, Dr. Landau.  Dr. Miani is a hematologist/oncologist and Dr. Landau works with radiation.  Since there is still no exact information about the cancer, they agree that radiation should be the next step.  Ideally, I would have been able to do that in Virginia but there is still no way to travel for hours in the pain I am in.

Dr. Occy (pronounced o-see) came in and appeared not to have gotten the radiation memo - he was still talking about PT and a rehab facility. Since he does not work in the oncology field, maybe that is why he didn’t know.

So, that is how my “vacation “ is going.  Today is the first day I had felt good enough and was not taking as much pain medication, to work on the blog.  I tried Monday but didn’t get beyond the title.

I will continue to post every few days or if there is something really important to let you know.  Many of you have been in touch and I really appreciate your kind words.