Mental Health and Suicide

[CoffeeHorse]

Argh. Today was supposed to be the last dose of chemo for a while. The sixth dose of a six dose schedule. And now at the finish line they want to do another round, which is three more doses. Each round is three doses and one week of recovery.

I should have known. When we told the head oncologist that the chemo guy's plan was two more rounds he was very surprised that it wasn't three. Turns out it's three. I guess the chemo guy misspoke when he said two.

I guess the good news is it's another sign that the head oncologist really knows his stuff. Every step of the way he's predicted what tests were going to show, and now he knows what the chemo guy is going to do better than the chemo guy does.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Chemo guy does not like the last images. I don't know why yet.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Until you get more information: focus on anything else. For all you know, he hates the centering and resolution, and dwelling on it will only hurt you in the long run.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I hope. It shouldn't be bad news. Everything we can see without the images seems better.

 

[wonko the sane?]

What did I literally just say?

Go take a walk, read a book, get lost in a game. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THIS until the next meeting. It will do nothing but hurt you.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Chemo guy wants to do a biopsy. Bad news is he's not sure what he saw on the CT. Hopeful news is he's not sure what he saw on the CT. He really doesn't like it but he's not sure.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

We finally got our explanation. Cancer may have spread to the lungs. That's why chemo guy isn't happy. He wants to get right on that.

Head doctor isn't so sure. The lungs are scary looking but it's possible that it's just covid damage. Apparently the lingering effects can be rough enough to be difficult to distinguish from cancer. So, uh, be careful out there. There's also other things it could be. It could be cancer, but maybe not. This doctor wants a higher tech scan ASAP.

On the bright side, he sees no other evidence of disease. So as usual, we're on a knife edge. This is either about to turn into a battle with lung cancer, or we did it.

 

[wonko the sane?]

If he sees no other evidence of disease: you're made. Because lung cancer has a whole host of associated blood and physiological side effects. Get the higher tech scan, and start making plans for the "beat cancer" party.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

They do blood tests before every chemo dose to make it's safe to give it to him, and they never noticed anything suspicious.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Scan got done today, and I got to look at the images. Fingers crossed but I didn't see the big glowing spots I was looking for.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Those scary spots turned out to be two possibly precancerous growths. They are not actually on the lungs, but on the surrounding wall. It wasn't clear on a flat CT, but the pet scan showed everything. Doctor described the growths as "unimpressive." There probably was an infection making the CT look worse than it was.

But the growths do exist. Current plan is to blast them with some targeted chemo and see what they do. Hopefully they'll be nipped in the bud and won't become cancer, if they were ever going to be.

Nothing else lit up on the pet scan. Nothing.

It worked.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Time to start planning the "I lived, bitch!" party!

 

[Caldwin]

Good news. Glad to hear it. That definitely deserves a celebration.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

He's already planning another road trip. I guess I'm going to be taking pictures of coffee machines again.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Alright, gonna get this off my chest.

2 years ago, my father went to his doctor with a complaint about a pain in his arm. Last friday morning he, finally, went to the appointment for the cardio stress test. He was then told "it's either your wife or an ambulance, but you are going to the hospital". Turns out he has a bad valve and probably an obstruction. He spent the weekend sitting in a hospital room, and was given some more testing today. About 20 minutes ago, we learned that he requires open heart surgery.

And frankly, I am more concerned about how this will affect my mother than anything else.

 

[MEDdMI]

Oh geez, that's scary. My dad had various heart procedures before, but he's doing ok. Best of luck for your dad.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Apparently not. Turns out he needs a dental cleaning before doing the procedure (something about potential infections, I don't get it, but I'm not a doctor.), so we managed to get him a cleaning for this morning... which was canceled last night due to flooding caused by the torrential rains.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Okay, so... brief update.

Dad is out of the room with the broken toilet, finally, because he complained enough about the literal dementia patient in the bed next to him that had screaming fits every two hours. EVERY two hours. And he got the dental cleaning he needed, but he still can't have the surgery because one of the four teeth he insisted he get to keep when years ago when the dentist told him his gob was unsalvageable has gone rotten and needs to be pulled. So THAT procedure is friday morning, then 8 days to heal, THEN he gets put on the heart surgery list to have his surgery in 7-10 days.

And we still don't really know jive. He was supposed to be seen by the doctor last night, dude straight up ******* ghosted. We don't even know why he got sent to the hospital he's currently IN when the hospital with the far better cardiac unit was 200 meters from where he was dispatched. We don't know when he can come home, IF he can come home, or if he can get transferred to the other, closer, better, hospital.

 

[Echowarrior]

Sounds like your dad's getting screwed around with by the healthcare system. Point this out to the press - maybe if you raise enough of a stink, they'll do better.

 

[wonko the sane?]

So, dad was told that once the heart monitor came off, he could go home. Turns out that was a lie. Hasn't had it on since friday, they removed all the infrastructure for it on saturday, and the nurses are saying he's not stable enough... despite being qualified as autonomous and not having any ******* monitoring what so ever.

If he has to stay in the hospital till after the HEART surgery (cause the needed DENTAL surgery is tomorrow.) (so 8 MORE days so his gob can heal, then ANOTHER 7 to 10 waiting for the actual surgery, and however long the healing period for that is... christ, we're in this jive till ******* christmas...) can we at least move him to the closer ******* hospital which has a better cardio unit anyway.

Mom is going to get the doctors phone number, and ask for the technical information, cause we know dad isn't hearing most of it and understand less than that. Cause his dumb ass is half ******* deaf and he absolutely refuses to see an audiologist cause he's terrified of being told he needs ******* hearing aids.