A Hideous Scare
Maeve had her routine checkup MRI on Wednesday, and results came back from the relatively-new-on-the-case doctor at Floating; she reported that there had been 30-40% growth (enormous, considering the tumors had not been growing at all), and recommended radiation. I am now selfishly glad I was in the dark on this, with my phone in my coat pocket between 8 and 12:30. In that time by sister had texted and voicemailed me, but also in that span of time, Dr. Heilman, the neurosurgeon who has been on the case all along, reported to Sue that he disagreed with that reading of the scans, and thought there was only a slight change in density in one segment. So when I got in touch with Stacey and heard all this, there was just this awful picture of uncertainty. I did not take this well, pretty much shut down at work, and left. My parents, on vacation in Florida, were only kept from getting on a plane by repeated pleading calls from all three of us. After keeping myself busy for a few hours at home, I just heard from Stacey. New Doc (of the 40% growth estimate) consulted with Dr. Heilman (of the 0 growth estimate) and basically said of her first assessment, "Never mind..." New Doc gave a million reasons why her first reading had made sense to her and a lot of "oh aren't we so lucky to have Dr. Heilman's expertise and..." Sue told her she was not to give a reading again without first consulting Dr. Heilman. So the upshot is, back to status quo and another MRI in 12 weeks.
What a terrible, fucked-up, ridonkulous afternoon this has been, in the long saga of living with a family member having cancer. We are all so relieved. And also pissed. I hope Sue switches this treatment team around a bit.
What a terrible, fucked-up, ridonkulous afternoon this has been, in the long saga of living with a family member having cancer. We are all so relieved. And also pissed. I hope Sue switches this treatment team around a bit.