A very bad spray tan

Yesterday morning I was collected by an orderly and wheeled round to theatre for my mediastenoscopy and biopsy. I felt ok as I lay under the massive light with people in blue fussing about me and then the next thing I remember is attempting to wake up in recovery. General anaesthetics are so weird. After a little chuck of phlemy disgustingness and a mobile x-ray they wheeled me back to my room with Edith and Deirdre. They were happy to see me back safe and sound.


I spent most of the day snoozing on and off. Dave did come to visit for a couple of hours in the afternoon and my mum came in the evening. During the afternoon I felt a bit crummy - a bit sickly and I couldn't get comfortable but it passed and I started to feel better. I had a good couple of hours sleep before the rest of the night was interrupted by nurses coming in for all manner of reasons - blood pressure, nebuliser, antibiotics, a new jelco. It was annoying.

Dave told me that the surgeon had called him and told him that he didn't see anything in my chest that looked like lymphoma. He said he took a biopsy but that he didn't expect it to come back as active disease. I still have not seen or spoken to the man who actually cut my neck and poked around in there. I did, however, see him on Kochy and Mel this morning!

I had a shower this morning and scrubbed off my bad fake tan. I ate my breakfast, got dressed and packed up my stuff. The doctors visited during their round and said I would be able to go. A doctor came back later to tell me the results of the pathology. The biopsy came back as fatty tissue and fibrous tissue, no cancerous tissue.

I endured more chit chat from Edith and Deirdre. Fixed the curtain for Edith, threw away some manky flowers for Deirdre and helped Edith get her underpants on over the vacuum pump helping her leg wound to heal (too much information? probably) while I waited for my mum to pick me up.

Mum came and took me to Dave's sister's to meet up with him and the girls. I had a bit of lunch and then went back into the city for a seminar on water, sanitation and hygiene. After sneaking out early and pinching a bit of the afternoon tea I drove back and collected the rest of the family. On the way home to Gawler I called Dr Giri to find out what he thought of the biopsy result. He said that the surgeon had called him and passed on his observations during the operation. He said that the biopsy results and the surgeon's opinion, having looked at the area, over-ruled the PET scan from last week and that based on the new information, I was in remission.

So there it is. No more cancer. For now. No more chemo, no radiation. No more treatment.

I'm not quite sure what to do with that information just yet. It's going to take a while to sink in.