Unpredictable, Uncertain...24/7 Cancer Cancer Cancer

Wednesday Sept 19, 2007

Slept in, finally got some sleep even though I had to sleep sitting up so that I wouldn't cough up blood anymore. Woke up around 8:45 and it was time to call the Dr. (Dr. Yasko - Northwestern - orthopedic Surgeon) Ya, like that is the first person you think of when you start profusely coughing up blood. Hmmmm. Anyway, Dr. Yasko said to go to Northwestern Memorial ER to be seen and that he would come down there. Today was my free day (except for getting my medical reports to Dr. Agulnik's office) to go and see the sights of Chicago. Seems like it never fails. I thought whew after the Dr. appt on Tues. whew I wouldn't be re-doing all of my medical tests on Wednesday, so we will take a day to ourselves and enjoy the city. Hah Fat Chance...that doesn't happen in my life and now with Cancer, yeah right! The way things have gone lately it did cross my mind that just maybe this time from bleeding out that it was so that the Dr's here could possibly catch whatever would be wrong that would be causing all of the bleeding out and that we would finally know something more. We'll see.

Upon arriving to the ER we are asked to sign in we stand behind a couple of other people. Then finally it is our turn. The woman working front desk asks if we are there to see a Dr. She tells us that someone will be with us shortly have a seat in the waiting room. Oh my goodness, we sat down and across from us were 2 ladies that were very chicagoey. (chicagoey- when a chicagoan acts like they are from chicago lol) they were quite funny to listen to. Then another woman comes in and they see her at the front desk and have her take a seat. Then they call this woman back to triage and she comes out wearing a breathing mask. Oh NO! This isn't good. George goes up to the nurse and asks id it is something we need to be concerned about considering the woman sat next to me for 5 minutes. They informed him that they could not divulge someone elses condition. So he explains that we have to protect my lungs and I would more than likely be having a surgery sometime in the near future. They should really think of others when taking people into the emergency room. They should have known to put a mask on her when she told them why she was there! Oh well, too late now. So George gets a mask for me, I out it on and went outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air. I hate having to worry about things like this so much but it has just become part of my life. I worry when the kids are around me if they get sick. I wish I could just worry about them and take care of them like I used to be able to do.

We finally got called back and were put in a room. They started an IV. We spoke with the Dr. and had all of my medical records on us. We showed them the records and they reviewed them. We let them know that we had called the Dr. I was in Chicago to see the day before and explained about how we couldn't get ahole of him the night before and the Dr. actually made soem pretty funny jokes about how he hoped we saw a real Dr. and that wouldn't it be funny to find out we had to call the illionois state police to report someone practicing as a Dr thathad no medical degree. Oh it was actually too funny! He gave us some good laughs. The Dr's there were quite surprised that noone had orederd a 3d image of the "bone tumor" in my skull yet. He wondered how they could diagnose off of a bone scan and a ct. He said an MRI was in order to get a better look and that they would call my Dr. and he would be down soon, if he even existed at all, another funny joke. Maybe this Dr. missed his calling as a comedian or maybe it's like Dr by day comedian by night!

We waited quite awhile. They did another chest x-ray and drew some blood. I am getting to be an expert blood donor, donating for the Jackie cancer treatment cause!! I absolutely Hate needles. Apparently the ER was getting pretty busy, so they moved me to a pseudo room in the hallway. A bed against the wall with a curtain they could pull around the bed for privacy, considering there were several other people in the hallway in beds just like mine next to me! It's like on the tv shows when you watch a hospital show and all of the patients are lined up down the hallway! One difference though, we weren't paid actresses!

After awhile my Dr. showed up stating that he had been in a surgery. Probably should of told him he looked pretty good for just going through surgery. He doesn't seem to have the same kind of sense of humor as the Er doc. I would guess you have to have a good sense of humor to be an ER doc though! He said that they compared the chest x-ray and blood work with the ones they did the day before in hsi office and that they couldn't see anything that had changed. He said that he felt the tumor was bleeding out and that I would need to be in the ER anytime I began to bleed out just so they could monitor and try to control it. He said that I was seeing Dr. Agulnik in the morning and he would possibly be able to let us know more then. He signed me out. Then we waited a couple of more hours through shift change until the ER docs finally let us leave. Yes!

We went back to the hotel and changed for dinner. We had previously planned to dine out that night and I wanted to go ahead with the evening plans. Although we were going to have to take it easy. George had asked a nurse at the hospital where a nice place to eat nearby would be that wouldn't be too costly and she had suggested The Lux Cafe and that it overlooked M Avenue. So we went dressed for dinner and headed out to The Lux to check it out. Wow, it was a gorgeous place. I was very excited to be there for dinner even though I was feeling pretty week. George had offered several times to just eat in to make it easier on me. As I saw it we were already there and I am not going to feel well all the time but I do want to live as much as possible and to keep taking positive experiences in, moving forward and letting nothing stop me. Especially not cancer! I plan on winning and giving all of the glory of it to God alone for without him I would not be here! If you could beat Cancer with your attitude, I have almost already won! A few moments here and there are all I am willing to give up and those moments are becoming less and less, because everyday I am getting stronger mentally and emotionally! I am hopeful and I have faith that God is with me and always will be! It is mind blowing to think about how many people are pulling for me and praying for me and my family. I am so thankful and feel very blessed to be part of such a wonderful community on Signal Mountain and doubly blessed by my wonderful Tres Dias family! It brings tears to my eyes everytime I think about them. So many people have offered their help and support. If it wasn't for them I would not be here in Chicago right now getting the help I need or the support that I need to fight this battle. They are a huge source of encouragement for me.

The Lux Cafe is so stunning. They have this beautiful chandelier (yes, I took a picture. lol!), in that way I really don't care what people think anymore. So I took out a camera and photographed the beautiful chandelier and the painted walls and of the architecture of the room. I am appreciating every detail of my life not taking anything for granted! As soon as we sat down I had coughed and I knew I had coughed up a large clot. I was a little concerned but planned on ignoring it and pushing through. I went to the bathroom and made sure I wasn't about to start bleeding out really bad and waited for a few moments. It was okay and I went back to the table and updated George on what t was but that it seemed to be okay. So we went ahead and ordered. We both ordered soup and it had to be one of the best soups I have ever had. It was chicken based and it was superb. Then for dinner I ordered a carmel chicken dish with rice. It was really good. The waiter had todl me it was very spicy but that the chef could tone it down for me if I would like. That was a good idea so I agreed to that. We had a wonderful meal. George had a mushroom burger. His dinner was very good too.

After dinner we left and went walking through the city a bit. it was late by this time and the streets were mostly empty. We ran across a sweet woman walking her adoreable little puppy and we spoke to her for a few moments. We took a few pictures on the street that night but only 1 or 2 of us turned out and a few of the city streets. It was dark and the camera is really hard ot use on the night setting, any slight movement at all and the pictures skew really badly. That's okay though it was a really enjoyable night after a very worrisome and long day! On the street we noticed soem signs up on the light poles. They were put up by the Chicago PD and stated that the following night during certain times parking on the street was closed due to the filming of a movie. We tried to remember the times so we could go back and see if we could catch them filming the movie. We thought that would be pretty neat and something very different!

We headed back to the hotel and went to bed. I was so tired. It had been a long day. I was glad that we went ahead and went out to dinner and for a walk. It was a nice pick me up after the kind of night we had before and for the day that we had.