Biopsy

Summary:
Hospital was fine, no issues with the biopsy. The tumor is in my tonsil and spread to my neck. Surgery, and soon, is recommended, but the exact type and stage won't be known till Tuesday or Wednesday. Throat is a little sore but not worse than any other I've had before.

Full deal:
Got to the hospital with plenty of time. Good thing because the map they gave us was completely useless. We ended up going in a completely different entrance than indicated, which was in fact, where we needed to be.

Registration; Checked in. Second question is 'do I have $980.00'. Answer: no.
"Okay, let me call my supervisor because you need to pay before the procedure. Did anyone call you from the hospital? It says someone called on the 12th and you said you could pay."

"No, she told me how much it was and I said I don't have $980.00 or something to that effect and I asked what would happen if I didn't and I was told I had to pay it. No other option was offered. Every one of my counselors, friends who've been through this, support groups, even my own doctor said not to worry about it so I thought something could be worked out at the hospital." I said.

"I'm going to have to call the doctor and find out if he considers it "emergent"", which I gather means 'is it an emergency situation', not 'is it emerging', lol.

So he calls the doctor right then and with me and both parents listening. He hangs up and says, "Dr. Rothman says it's not emergent so we will need to reschedule." In my mind, every curse word I could think of was spewed down that phone line right into his brain. Not gonna say what I was thinking about said toxic brainwaves...

So of course, my mom, being a mom, and being present there hearing this, goes immediately to get her credit card and all my emotions and thoughts follow immediately into a black hole. I feel like I felt when Bob's brother hugged me. I feel like it would have been better if they weren't even here now. My parents are retired. I know they would give me their last penny to fix this and that makes me feel worse than hearing "you have cancer". And of course, everyone says not to worry about it. I am. I do. But I'm also more worried about everything from this point on. I know surgery is going to cost upwards of $40,000 and that's being conservative. Delicate neck surgery? No idea.

Anyway, once the credit card is swiped and our futures destroyed, they're more than happy to immediately send me upstairs to get naked in the freezing-ass pre-op area. We meet the doctor, who offers some bullshit about how he knows this isn't how anyone wants their day in the hospital to start and how he doesn't get involved in the financial side of things. Of course, we're all thinking to ourselves he's full of shit since it was his decision that my f*&%#$@! tumor closing up my airway, threatening to spread to my chest or brain, is not "emergent" and ONLY that which would have sent me home to basically die.

He goes away. The rest stay and set up the IV and ask me the same seven questions 2 people on the phone and 4 people in the hospital already asked me. "no, I'm not allergic to anything." "No, I don't drink." etc.. But everyone is very nice and the woman with the needle is adequate (it's all psychological anyway, I know). They wheel me back and somehow on the way I'm done and back in the room already.

My mom and dad come into recovery and tel me what the dr told them - that I have a tumor on my tonsil and it has spread to my neck (it's bad if it goes near or below the collarbone [close to heart, lungs, etc.] or the base of my skull), and that we will to decide but he recommends surgery, and soon. How is any of this not "emergent"?

The nurse comes back to see how I'm doing and tell me the IV will come out soon. She gives us some paperwork and there's a paper about the prescriptions for pain meds and how they affect you, side effects, blah blah, except there's no prescriptions written down. No pain meds, no xanax like I asked, like he told me he'd give me last visit and didn't, like his office told me he would prescribe "at the hospital". And of course, no doctor around. "He never comes to recovery". The nurse is very nice and she actually asks me what pharmacy I use and calls the doctor's office to have them call it in. Cool.

No. Not cool.
1:30pm
*cut to pharmacy*
*enter drunk looking and sounding pharmacist* "No, no scrips phoned in. Let me check the email. No, nothing here."

Phone calls to dr yields endless automated phone systems and voicemails but no live people. Phone calls to other Basha's lead nowhere. We figure maybe the doctor's office closes at noon for lunch so we go home. I try to call again at 2:15 with the same results so we pile in the car and drive the 20 minutes to the dr's office. The blonde with the dead expression and no answers is not there, but the other woman there is very helpful and asks Marsha, the dr's PA, about it and she says she called it in while I was in the hospital. I ask for the phone number she called to make sure we're going to go to the right place this time and she provides it.

I figured I had better call to make sure they do have it and where exactly I'm going and the drunk sounding pharmacist answers and says it is there, and asks if I was the person who was in earlier. I said yes, but it wasn't there. She says, "no, it wasn't but it is now. It got called in at around 3:00pm".

Which is it? Did it get called in while I was at the hospital at 12:30 or so or did it get called in at 3:00pm, 10 minutes before we arrived at the dr's office? Sooooooo, a small but extremely infuriating and annoying AND money-wasting excursion because one of these two is either dumb or lying and I am leaning heavily towards the woman at Basha's pharmacy.

Oh, and no damn Xanax.

Blood work

Got my blood work, EKG and chest x-rays done today, no problems. All set for tomorrow. Results won't be in till late Tuesday most likely. I hate waiting. This is the worst one too because this is the one that will tell me what stage and if there are more to worry about, and basically what all of my future options will be.

On a more positive note, the kid and the 'rents got in today no problem and I got to eat sushi. How I love you, Tuna Tataki.

Blood work postponed

Till tomorrow. 1:45pm.
Parents and Kaia get in at 10:30am.

I have the best friends

I should have put this up earlier, if only to tell everyone just how awesome Colleen and Christian are. They're using their business, copicmarkerscrapbooking.com to run a fundraiser for me:

http://copicmarkerscrapbooking.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/we-love-guy-gondron-fundraiser/

Even if you can't help out now, go check out their site. They has some great tutorials, clipart and of course, Copic markers.

Allo

This is my lymph node. It's a bad lymph node and must be punished.
If I could figure out a way to get a pic inside my mouth I could show y'all the actual tumor. No? Aww, but learning is fun!

Calmer now lol

A little exercise, some completely awesome friends and I feel a little better. Kevin keeps insisting that Access will pick up the loose ends. Hope so. I'm just worried money issues will delay my treatment.

Welp, I'm screwed

Just found out how much my insurance really sucks.

Cigna/Starbridge pays $1250.00 a year. My obligation, after the $100.00 deductible, is 20%.

The deductible will be burned up getting my blood work - $129.00

20% of the bill just for the biopsy is $980.00

Even if I wasn't 2 steps from homelessness that would be too much.

I don't do math anymore, but even I can tell that my $1250 is all gone. Can't even begin to imagine how I'm going to make it

off-topic. sorta

When it became apparent that I would not be able to keep working through my treatment and even if I could, the costs would be high since my insurance says they'll only pay $1250.00 per year (which won't even cover one treatment, much less an operation), and I don't want to destroy my parent's retirement, I finally decided to go after my ex-wife for the child support she never paid. Yeah, even though she petitioned to get it reduced to a paltry $100.00 a month, she hasn't done that in 3 years. Sure, it was payroll deduction, but she learned long ago that all she has to do is quit or transfer and then not re-up with the Disbursement department. Long story short, she owes me a lot of money

Sooo, I called the Clerk of the Court and filed to have her driver's license suspended and her tags revoked. She has 5 days to either pay in full, work out an agreement with me (which isn't going to happen), or contest it in court.

Needless to say, when she got the letter she wasn't happy and called me to tell me so. I really never want to speak to her again so I let voicemail get it.

Appaaaaaaaaarently she only makes $200.00 a month at her security guard job and "can't afford $200.00" a month child support payments (must have been too long since she paid, as they were only $100 a month) and her poor husband is disabled due to a back injury and they are barely making ends meet *tear*

A quick trip to her husband's Facebook reveals that not only is poor Mark not disabled, but had been working in Dallas, still with American Airlines, where he had an apartment of his own to compliment the huge house with the pool they own in Orlando. And apparently boating excursions to go shrimping and concerts and tours of the Cowboys stadium (complete with pictures. Hey, there's Donna in Dallas!) are all free now.

So no, there will be no agreements on "payments", and no, I don't believe anything you say and yes, I will push hard to put a lien on your house and everything else you own since you seem to feel your precious home and your pretty truck and trips across the country are more important than your daughter's well-being.

errr

Scheduled my blood work at the hospital. Since I have Cigna, I can't get it all done in one place...

The EKG is in one department, the blood work is down the hall, which is not too bad, but the chest x-ray has to be done somewhere else altogether.

I'm glad I can still get it done, but it's just screwed up. The one department could have done it all. Also can't help thinking about all the x-rays and scans I've gotten recently. I know I'll be getting plenty more, but it feels like a step backward each time.

Appt is on Wednesday, the 13th at 1:45

April 10

Throat hurts a lot today. The roof of my mouth near the tonsil is more swollen and purple than it was. Tylenol isn't really helping.

April 8

Had meeting with the doc. Nothing much to report. I have to switch to Tylenol. I can't have shots or anything in my left arm, as he's going to need it to make a skin graft. For what I don't know yet. I have to schedule blood work and an EKG at the hospital. Doc won't talk about the cancer until the biopsy. Kinda frustrating.

Spent the evening in the gayest gay bar in Phoenix, for Jen's birthday.

At least I don't own an AK

Wednesday April 6

Today was a bad day. It started out ok. Kevin and I went over a buddy's house to hang out and his brother was there. I'd met him only once before but he seemed pretty cool. Kevin was joking with him about how he had "seent" cancer. He didn't get it because he didn't know yet, so Kevin grabs my chin and says "Right in here. I seent it on his tonsil!" The brother says, "that's not cancer" like it's a joke and I had to tell him what's going on.
I had told Kevin earlier that day that I could see a plaque on my tonsil and realized that it was probably why the doc knew it was cancer and was so certain where it was. Kevin wanted to see it so I showed him. He immediately felt weird having actually seen cancer.

Bob's brother was cool, asked questions about it, listened to my replies. Talked about people he knew who had it. All good. As I'm leaving, someone else had come over and people were kinda spread out through the kitchen and living room, and Bob's brother comes across the house and out the door to say bye to me. I was a bit surprised and completely munsonned the handshake and the next that then turned into the worst bro-hug I've ever given and then I had to leave.

I think I'd kept it pretty much together since the 1st, but for some reason I can't right now. I don't know why that triggered it. Because he wasn't a close friend but had done what my close friends don't because they know me? Because a near stranger showed more concern in that moment that anyone else here has? Kevin would give me bear-hugs all day if he thought it would help me. He has a very physical relationship with his son, wrestling with him and giving him dad-hugs and stuff. I'm just not like that. Or is it because I think he's scared for me? That's probably what did it to me. Whatever the reason, I didn't go to work. My manager was understanding.



6:31pm Let's see what my fortune says:

"A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work"

Left out

I realized I didn't relate the small happening yesterday.

After not receiving a call from the scheduling dept on Monday, I called Tuesday morning. I called 5 times throughout the day and got the answering machine every time. Left two messages. While I was leaving the second message, right about 3:00, they called me.

I was a little bothered that the biopsy was scheduled for 10 days out, but she said the dr was ok with it, so...

Anyway: biopsy - Friday, April 15 and 9:30 in the am with surgery to begin at 11:30. General anesthesia. My dad is going to be flying in to go with me. My mom and Kaia want me to try to find out how soon after the biopsy might they go for the major surgery. Hopefully the doctor has some sort of answer for that so they can make plans for when to come up. If it's close to the biopsy they'll come for both.

I suspect the dr won't be able to say anything about it until after the biopsy though. I believe he'll remove my tonsil(s) during the biopsy and use an endoscope to look down in my throat to see if they can visually see any more problems.

Change of direction

Sometimes you really have no choice.

I am going to be changing the subject matter for my blog here. I'll still post my paintings and other art stuff, but most likely not as often.

On April 1st, just a few days ago, I was informally diagnosed with cancer. I don't know specifically what type or how far its progressed until a biopsy can be done next week.

All through December and January I had a bad cough. A remnant of a cold that soon became bronchitis. At the time, I had no insurance. I had let it lapse when my employer, Pizza Hut, sold this region to a group of investors. The new owners decided, even though they were the ones who chose to make an investment of that magnitude in the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression, that they couldn't let sales slump or even stagnate - growth is the only 'must'. So they cut the driver's wages virtually in half. I was making minimum wage as a driver. The new paycut, for drivers only mind you, cut us down to server wages - $4.25 and hour. At the same time they cut our wages, they also cut my hours. I know a few drivers and it seemed almost across the board. My hours went from around 32 a week to about 16. So yeah, in half too. My paycheck had been about $400.00 every two weeks. Now it's $150.00. So I went from about $800.00 a month wages to $300.00. Anyway, this is why I let my insurance lapse. I simply couldn't afford it any longer. The church was already helping me with rent as it was.

But I digress. Eventually I couldn't deal with the cough anymore and went to the urgent care office near my work. I got some antibiotics and all was well. I also applied for the new BBH Inc. insurance. Right about the time I finished the course meds, I noticed that the gland on the side of my neck was swollen. I knew from years of doctor visits that they always check them and ask about them when complaining of throat ills. I also knew it probably wasn't a good thing.

I went back to the urgent care place and the doctor (always a different one) said he'd prescribe an antibiotic that targets that area, but if it doesn't go away, come back for an ultrasound.

It didn't go away. I admit I was pretty nervous at that point. I found myself Googling for info. Anyone who's done this would understand that this is probably not a good idea. I avoided the images section and just focused on information, which was less than encouraging. Every search I did for "lumps in neck" or "swollen lymph nodes" etc., came up as either Lymphoma or the node acting as a marker for another, unnoticed tumor somewhere else. Did I say I was nervous? Now I was almost panicking inside. My roommate's son had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma when he was a young child, and he's still here, in full remission. Didn't help my inner dialogue at all. I dragged my feet for a few days and then finally went back to the urgent care office.

It went a bit as I expected. I paid another $100.00 to be told I would have to pay another $250.00 for a CAT scan. I couldn't get my damn insurance cards to print online because apparently Cigna/Starbridge is too small a business to know how to build a working website.

The CT was quick and easy. Even the IV of iodized whatever, to make my blood show up, wasn't too bad, and I'm a pussy when it comes to needles. That's about the end of "quick and easy".

I was told the scans would be ready in about 2-3 days. After 3 days of waiting I called the office to find out that they've been dialing a 480 area code instead of my 407 cel area code for 3 days, and had left messages on some non-working message service.

I went back to urgent care and spoke with the office. The woman there gave me a sheet describing the scan results. I had a mass in my neck with several "low density areas that might indicate necrosis or abscess". I was encouraged by this, thinking an abscess, even one that was fairly problematic due to the location, would be much better than lymphoma. They gave me a list of referrals to ear, nose, throat docs, which I took as another encouraging sign. After all, why would they send me to an ENT if I had cancer. Wouldn't they refer me to an oncologist? This visit only cost me $15 since I finally got my ins cards in the mail.

I called the office on the list that was closest to my home. A Dr. Mostafavi. The woman on the other end was terse and a little rude, and when she asked if I had insurance (her second question after "name"), I fumbled with the name since it was new and I wasn't quite sure. In the time it took me to get my wallet and pull out the card to give her the correct name of this crappy little sub-prime insurance wannabe, she spit out something about not taking that insurance and hung up on me.

So I called the other office that was fairly close. A Dr. Janelle Engel. The woman who set the appointment was very nice and she took the information regarding my files and the CT and the urgent care place. Or at least I thought she did. The day before my appt, the office called me to tell me they postponed my appt because they couldn't get the files from my doctor and that he had to leave early that day anyway. Only I didn't get the call. I went to the office for my appt, not knowing it had been changed. After I was told why I was pretty shocked and more than a little angry. I explained again that I didn't have a family doctor, I was referred by the urgent care facility. She said they don't have the scans. I told her I would get them myself.

If they had tried to call me earlier I could have gotten the files for them and not have had to reschedule, but they called the day before my appt, as if they meant to reschedule all along and the file issue was just an excuse.

The next day I went to the urgent care place and asked for my files. After about 30 minutes they came out with my chest x-rays from my bronchitis. I asked about the CT and she said they don't ever get those. The imaging place has them. So I called the imaging place. Tomorrow. My appt wasn't for 3 more days so I picked up the CT files the next day.

I brought the disc to the ENT office and asked the woman at the desk if I could see another doctor earlier. In the few days I'd waited and been strung along, my tonsil had grown and was looking like it would close my airway soon and I told her so. She looked at me like a goldfish in a bowl. The other women in the office volunteered that I "wouldn't want another doctor for a neck dissection", that Dr. Rothman was the man, the best in his field in the Valley.

I left angry and dejected again. Oh well, 3 more days isn't terrible.

On April 1st, I met with Dr. Rothman. I felt like the women in the office were much nicer to me this day than the two earlier times, like either they knew they messed up or, now that I was a legitimate patient, they no longer looked at me like I was some homeless guy harshing their garden party cuz I asked for some change. They answered my questions almost too nicely. At this point I was so keyed up that even "too nice" was a good thing.

Although I was feeling a lot of stress and anxiety, I felt the chances that it was an abscess were good. After all, wouldn't it say something more ominous on the report? I've since learned that the word "mass" was the ominous note I missed. Dr Rothman was very friendly but there was a note of seriousness that I caught immediately. He prodded my tonsil with the tongue depressor as he looked in my throat. Asked if I had been coughing up any blood (no) or if I had earaches and a sore throat (yes to both). Headaches too. Nothing I hadn't been asked a hundred times before by a doctor.

I was feeling anxious but fairly confident it was not cancer until he said tumor. I don't remember feeling shocked or surprised when he said the word, I only remember asking. "Tumor? What? Benign? Not?"

He said, "I can't see how it's not cancer."

I don't think I'll ever forget that.

He told me he recognized it from just looking at the CT, didn't even really need to look in to confirm it. He said he wanted to do a thin needle biopsy. I knew these were no big deal but still told him of my problem with needles. He said that he was positive enough that I didn't have to go through that if I didn't want to. I said I'd rather not have the needle if it's not necessary. A more in-depth biopsy would be needed either way. He told me it would be under general anesthesia and I'd need someone to drive me.

After he had said tumor, he asked me how I came to be in his office. I explained briefly about the bronchitis and the appearance of the lump as well as how I came to be referred to him. He seemed puzzled about it and asked again in a different way. I told him about the first office being snippy and terse and how I had asked for Dr Janelle but was told I would be much better with him, as he was the best in the Valley in this sort of thing. He said that was what was odd. Not only was he a specialist, and one of only two doctors in Phoenix who do specialize in this, he specializes in exactly what I have: a tumor of the tonsil. I was worried he was trying to find out if I was legit or something, like I shouldn't be there or was pulling some scam because it was just too coincidental. I'm just glad I got lucky on at least that point.

We talked about the biopsy and he asked me if I had any questions. I'm sure I should have asked him about a hundred but I couldn't think of anything. All I could do was mumble something about at least knowing what it is now and shook his hand and walked out to the front desk in a bit of a haze.

I drove home, trying not to lose it. I would not be able to call my daughter or my parents until I was sure I could keep it under control. I knew it would be worse if I tried when I was this emotional. I got home and told my roommate. I avoided calling my parents for the time being. About an hour after I got home my dad called. He was having dinner at a restaurant with my mom and Kaia, my daughter. I knew once I told them, dinner was destroyed, but I couldn't 'not' tell them or they'd know something was wrong and their imaginations would make it worse.

I told my dad and he tried to give me some encouragement. I hung up knowing that he was going to have to tell them right then. I am not sure if I feel better or worse for not being there for them to hug and vice versa. The thought of telling them over the phone was bad enough, in person would be too much. It was almost too much just talking about it to Kaia.

Since then it's been daily updates for the family. I decided that I couldn't be my normal introverted depressive self and hide away. If I was going to make it I needed all the support I can get. I'm stubborn, but I know I can also fall into those dark places it's hard to get out of, and from the little I'd already read, that can severely impact my survivability. So I got on Facebook and on my Deviantart account and told everyone I knew there what had happened. I hadn't expected it to make as much difference to me as it already has, but there it is. I need people too. I've already joined several sites for information and support and have more info on the way in the mail.

The big issue right now going to be location and stage of the tumor as well as worrying about possible unknown tumors elsewhere. Everything I've read has been fairly disheartening and encouraging at the same time. Great stories of survival peppered with awful details of the side effects of treatment. Most of these everyone already knows - nausea, loss of hair, weakness. What I didn't know was that I'd most likely lose my sense of taste, either permanently or temporarily. Even if it does come back, it won't be the same. I'm a foodie at heart so that will be rough psychologically. I will likely lose my ability to produce saliva or at least only be able to produce limited amounts. It doesn't sound like much until you think about eating and sleeping. The products recommended to cope with this side effect are almost more worrisome than losing my spit! Sprays and gels, yuck. If a neck dissection needs to be done, which I'm fairly certain it will, I will have my lymph nodes removed (not sure if they just take the one side that's effected or both) and some neck muscle removed. The radiation treatments will burn my skin, outside and inside my mouth and throat.

I have to say at this point that this is where my own curiosity and conjecture might be getting ahead of things. I haven't even had my first biopsy yet. The problem is; all the searching and reading I've done seem to indicate that, barring a simple lymph node infection or an abscess, a lump in the neck indicates cancer. And there are basically two types of cancer that affect the head and neck and they're both similar. Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma. So I don't have confirmation yet that this is what I have, but the odds of it "not" being HNSCC are remote at best.

This post was long as heck, mostly because I waited to start it and because I wanted to write everything down. I learned from my journals during my divorce that not only is it a good record to have, it helps organize your thoughts, think of things in new directions and is just good therapy. Parsing the experience down to basics. One day at a time. Baby steps.

Michelangelo Hung Behind NY Sofa for 27 Years

Unbelievable.

"I had assumed it was going to be a copy," Forcellino said.

Still, Forcellino skeptically visited Kober's home outside Buffalo to view the painting, and the trip left him a bit breathless.

"In reality, this painting was even more beautiful than the versions hanging in Rome and Florence. The truth was this painting was much better than the ones they had. I had visions of telling them that there was this crazy guy in America telling everyone he had a Michelangelo at home," Forcellino said.

Full Story Here

$50M Van Gogh Cut Out of Its Frame With a Boxcutter

Broken cameras blamed for theft of van Gogh worth $50M

Hadeel Al-Shalchi Associated Press

CAIRO—None of the alarms and only seven out of 43 surveillance cameras were working at a Cairo museum where a Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen, Egypt's top prosecutor said Sunday.

Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of "Poppy Flowers" and "Vase with Flowers," on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Egyptian capital.



Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud told Egypt's state news agency Sunday that the thieves used a box cutter to remove the painting from its frame. He blamed the theft on the museum's lax security measures, calling them "for the most part feeble and superficial."

The rest of the article is here.

Here are some of the aforementioned sketches :)

First in what I hope will be a series of work in this style. I'd been doodling this image so much I decided to finally get something down on canvas. Just a little 11"x14"

Finally Finished

Well, I've been in a pretty deep creative funk for awhile. Trying to brute force through it doesn't seem to work much but you can't beat emotion as a motivator. On top of the usual depression over still being broke and working for a pittance in a job that bores me after 3 years of this damn economic depression, the plain truth is I was missing the kid. So I finished my painting of her.

New techniques reveal just how tacky our ancestors were

Original Greek statues were brightly painted, but after thousands of years, those paints have worn away. Find out how shining a light on the statues can be all that's required to see them as they were thousands of years ago.

Although it seems impossible to think that anything could be left to discover after thousands of years of wind, sun, sand, and art students, finding the long lost patterns on a piece of ancient Greek sculpture can be as easy as shining a lamp on it. A technique called ‘raking light' has been used to analyze art for a long time. A lamp is positioned carefully enough that the path of the light is almost parallel to the surface of the object. When used on paintings, this makes brushstrokes, grit, and dust obvious. On statues, the effect is more subtle. Brush-strokes are impossible to see, but because different paints wear off at different rates, the stone is raised in some places – protected from erosion by its cap of paint – and lowered in others. Elaborate patterns become visible.

Read the rest of the article here