Still waiting

And I hate to wait.  I haven't posted anything this week after the MRI because I keep thinking that any minute (or hour or day) I'll get news.  So far, though, nothing. 

I had the MRI Monday morning at Stormont-Vail, a Topeka hospital.  It went smoothly.  Unlike at KU Med, here you're allowed headsets to minimize the constant banging of the MRI machine.  I chose an RnB station, but I could barely hear the music over all the racket.  You're also given a squeeze ball in case you panic, but I was so far from panicking that I think I actually fell asleep for a few minutes.  I was then to call to Med Center on Wednesday to set up whatever comes next.  After navigating the menu, I left a voice mail for Dr. Van's patient care manager, not my favorite person to deal with at the center.  She called back later to say that they didn't have the results, and if they didn't have them by Friday, she'd call Stormont-Vail.  I insisted several times that she call that day, but she just kept repeating that she'd give me a "shout out" when the results came in.  When I heard nothing yesterday (Thursday), I emailed Jennifer, the Physician Assistant who works with Dr. Van and whom we like a lot.  I've found that emails are more effective than phone tag.  She wrote back that she'd have the assistant check out why there were no results yet and get back to me.  It's now 8:45 on Friday morning, and I've heard nothing.  Should I be the squeaky wheel yet again?

I realize that the branch of the Med Center that I go to is devoted solely to cancer patients.  Everyone with whom the doctors and staff deal has cancer, so in some ways, it must seem to them as the norm.  From the other side, however, the long waits (it was three weeks between the initial finding of growth in the tumor on the spine and the MRI) can be very frustrating.  Perhaps the MRI will reveal that the tumor's increase in size is insignificant, but even if I know today, it'll will have been a month before there can be a consultation to decide what to do next, if action is called for. 

Mohamed and I have often said that the hardest part of the last 4½ years was the month between April 13, 2011 when the doctor in Topeka who had misdiagnosed me for six months (first, a torn rotator cuff, then bursitis) called to say it was cancer and the beginning of treatment.  We were in a kind of limbo, not knowing who was going to do what where and when.  A month of inaction seemed like a distant nightmare, but even if I hear something today, it'll be a month between the news that the spinal tumor is growing and any possible action. 

Thanks to all of those of you who have texted or emailed inquiring about results.  I'll post an update as soon as I do know something.  Meanwhile, my fingers are crossed (except when typing) that the results are good and the worry has been for nothing.

On other fronts, we had more Halloween trick-or-treaters than for at least twenty years.  And best of all, they were all very cute kids in costumes of all types--not a teen-ager among them.  Of course, the fact that we ran out of candy by 8 o'clock (I was convinced that Mohamed had bought too much) might account for the lack of older kids.

And, of course, joy reigns supreme in this area after the great and often nail-biting World Series.  Mohamed may, however, be grateful that baseball is over till the spring.