Bionic Woman (part 1)

I'm not sure how much all of my medical bills have amounted to over the years, but I might soon be the next "Six Million Dollar Woman". Or I guess I should say the "Bionic Woman". I've been very fortunate and have always had medical insurance. We still had to pay a big part over the years but when it came time for my transplant God was looking out for me. I had went back to working at the Library in 2004 and had insurance from them and I was still on my husband's insurance too. So in 2007 I had two insurance policies. It worked out I could receive medical leave and my insurance from work would still be in tact. So I had two insurances to cover me for my transplant. I had taken medical leave the summer of 2006 for a few weeks when I couldn't see and then I needed to take another medical leave for the summer of 2007 for the transplant. A couple of weeks before the scheduled hospital stay, my Human Resource Manager called and told me I didn't quite qualify for this next scheduled leave! I didn't have enough "days worked" to qualify. I asked how many I needed and fortunately it was only like another ten days. I called my contact at the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic at Shands and explained my situation. I said I know this is strange but could we delay the transplant for another week and a half and then I'd have medical leave and the all important second insurance! This was an unusual request but she said this could easily be worked out. I had to do two weeks of intensive chemo therapy before the transplant, so they would just delay the harvesting of the bone marrow from the donor.

I still don't know who my donor is except that it's a woman with type O blood. My two year anniversary is this May 29th. I hope to be able to contact her after this date. There are rules that prohibit donors and patients from contacting each other until some time has past. I'm very anxious to meet this generous person.

The Bionic Woman in me seems very real. I have had over the years numerous medical tests! First I had all kinds of tests just to find out that it was cancer. Statistically at 36 years of age I shouldn't be having this type of cancer. NonHodgkins Lymphoma was mostly for older people and usually males. I never rely on statistics! You can't count on them. No pun intended. The medical community had no idea why I was so sick. But I kept pushing and telling them something just wasn't right. I know my body and this is not the way it should be. I wouldn't let them quit looking and testing until they came up with an answer. Blood tests, x-rays, cat scans, upper GI's, lower GI's, and two colonoscopies and this was before they knocked you out for the procedure. For the first one I was admitted into the hospital and told to drink several liters of this awful tasting stuff in a certain amount of time. This was to clean out my colon. I did have the bed next to the bathroom thank goodness and didn't have to run as far. I was willing to cooperate but my stomach had shrunk from me not eating and it couldn't hold very much. I managed to get down half before my body rebelled. As soon as I started on the second half it would come right back up! There just wasn't enough room in my tummy for this other liter. Well, this didn't make Nurse Ratchette very happy with me. She insisted I keep it down! and quit being a baby. Like I could keep an overfilled balloon from popping! She was nuts. But I kept drinking and I kept throwing it right back up. I finally made it through this. Keep in mind this is waaaay back in 1992 and they do things differently now. When I was wheeled down to the procedure room, I was given a shot "to take the edge off." Oh yeah, like this was going to work. This shot hurt worse than what little good it did. Then they gave me the famous "twilight injection". I had had this before and knew this did not phase me one little bit. This is suppose to put you far enough out that you don't even remember the procedure! I told them this wasn't going to do the job. But what did I know. I was still wide awake laying on my side with the doctor at my backside sliding a tube up the you know where. This was a bit painful (this is why they now knock you out!) and I let him know it. He went up the entire colon and took little bits of the tumors for biopsies. Well, home I went to wait a few days for the results. The results were inconclusive! They needed to do this AGAIN and take a bigger sample for biopsy. (With my type of lymphoma sometimes the cancer cells can be far apart and not show up in a small sample.) Since the doctor and I were now on intimate terms I told him before the next one we needed to make some changes here. There had to be another way to cleanse my colon and he told me what to get at the drugstore that would do the trick without drinking Lake Okeechobee. I then told him I needed more drugs because this was painful. He must have felt sorry for me. They gave me extra drugs for my discomfort this time. It still didn't knock me out or even make me woozy. I was wide awake and lucid but I wasn't uncomfortable at all. I told the doctor he better take as big a sample as he could because we would not be doing this again. He was very nice and when he started with the camera tube going into the far beyond, he asked if I wanted to watch it on the screen. Now this part was cool! He explained as I watched this camera travel up my colon. I could see for myself how all the tumors were pressing in on my colon. It looked like a soft hose with golf balls on the outside pressing in. These tumors were growing and blocking off my small intestines and colon. This is why my food couldn't go through and I would get severe back aches. He cut off a bigger sample (I reminded him while he was "visiting" to get as much as he could.) This was the test that said for sure it was cancer.

I started seeing an oncologist in Orange Park, FL. I wasn't as thrilled with him as he was with himself but I thought he must know what he was doing. My first clue he wasn't the right doctor for me should have been when I called to make my first appointment, I was told he was on vacation and I would have to wait three weeks for an opening! Three weeks! Can you even imagine you have been told you have cancer and have to wait three whole weeks. I still couldn't eat and I was still having bad back pains and I was still changing diapers, making bottles, doing laundry, cooking meals, and running after a three year old. I finally got in to see him and he said the first thing we would do is a bone marrow test. Well, this took another week to schedule. This was my first bone marrow test and I didn't know what to expect. The nurse put an IV in my arm for the pain killer and then realized I'd be lying on my stomach. She pulls that IV out and switches arms. She had just put in the medicine when Dr. Full of Himself struts in with the biopsy needle. The medicine hadn't even taken effect when he jabbed that needle into my back hip bone. I couldn't help it. I screamed! Talk about pain! Then I still had to book my next appointment to come back for the results. At the next appointment as I went and signed in, the nurse said yes she remembered me. I was the screamer! It seems that all the nurses and receptionists had heard me scream bloody murder and LAUGHED! I was so humiliated. I saw the doctor and he said the marrow test was negative but he still wasn't satisfied with the diagnosis. He wanted an entire tumor to biopsy to pinpoint the exact lymphoma. I later learned from another oncologist that there were at that time about 72 different kinds.

I needed to have an exploratory abdomen surgery to see just how many tumors and what all was in there and take out a big one for biopsy. They were to open me up from my belly button straight down about eight inches. This operation went smoothly and the surgeon knew what he was doing. Before the operation I was extremely nervous and when I'm that nervous I talk a lot! I mean a mile a minute and about any and everything! I'm not thinking, I'm just talking rapidly! I say anything that comes into my mind as I think it! No filter! They have me all prepped and on the rolling table in the waiting area curtained off waiting my turn on the table. First the surgeon who I have already had an appointment with comes in to say "hello" and go over again what he's going to do. Then the anesthesiologist comes in to meet me and talk a little to reassure me. When he came in...... he started talking to me and I didn't hear a word. He had the most gorgeous blue eyes and was just the most handsome man I had seen. He was probably my age or a couple of years younger and was movie star handsome. Brad Pitt had nothing on this one! Well, like I said, I said exactly what I was thinking and out of my mouth it poured. I told him I was so glad I had such a good looking doctor taking care of me and I loved his blue eyes! He was very gracious and thanked me. I can't remember what else I said I was so nervous. The surgery went well. They opened me up, I was full of tumors, they took out about three of the largest ones and my appendix as well, and sewed me up. The next day while I was recuperating, the anesthesiologist came by for a visit. He was so nice and wanted to see how I was doing. He could only stay a few minutes and was gone. My day nurse came in after he left and asked if I was a friend of that doctor. I said no, just met him for the surgery. All the nurses had crushes on him and she said he never came up to see the patients afterwards. This was the first time she had seen him come to check on someone! I'm so glad he did! It made my day!

Also visiting me after surgery was my surgeon and my oncologist Dr. Full of Himself. Well I guess all the pain killers and nervousness was still with me because I told that doctor that I wouldn't be seeing him anymore! I would be going into Jacksonville at Baptist Cancer Center from then on. He just blew it off and told me I'd get tired of the drive and would come back to him. I never went back to him and if anyone ever asked about an oncologist I would tell them not to go to him and how awful I thought he was. He's still practicing but I've heard some other terrible stories about him from dissatisfied patients.

When I made an appointment at the Baptist Cancer Center I told the receptionist I needed a very compassionate doctor with a great bedside manner. She had just the one for me. I started seeing Dr. M and was very satisfied. He explained things to me and told me we had to start right away. As soon as the surgery had healed a little more, he would get me going pronto. I saw this oncologist for 16 years until I went to Gainesville Shands and then moved to Georgia. I'd still be seeing him if I were still in Florida.