Rosie's Cancer Journey

The Radiologist must not work on Fridays or had yesterday off. When I got my PET scan on Thursday morning, I vaguely remember someone saying to me that if I didn’t get those results on Thursday, it would probably be on Monday (and I got those results right away). We are now waiting until Monday to get my liver MRI scheduled because someone needs to tell the schedulers what type of contrast or dye is needed. And trust me, we aren’t waiting around. Jeff called the Radiology Scheduling Team probably 10 times yesterday and I called 3 times in order to get this moving along. When I called, I was told that “we have to follow the process”.

I need the MRI so I can find out if I need the biopsy so I can find out if this cancer has spread to my liver. (Also, ew, the word “liver” is so gross.)

And no matter what, I need to get a port put in place in order to start chemo treatment. But for some reason, the schedulers decided to put my first chemo treatment on the calendar for 11/3 without rescheduling the port placement, which is currently scheduled for 11/11 along with the liver (ew!) biopsy I may or may not need.

And so as of now, things are scheduled out of order for reasons we don’t know anything about, and we probably won’t know anything for a few more days… which is SO STRESSFUL and why I’m up so fricking early thinking about this and typing this all out on a Saturday morning!!!

Yesterday morning on my way to work, I was listening to KEXP on the radio as always. The DJ, John Richards, read a letter from a listener named Carly. It sounded like she was getting an MRI for a brain cancer scan the other day and wrote in to KEXP which was read on the air, and listeners had sent her messages of support in response. Carly responded to give an update and say thank you, and included in that, John read something along these lines:

Feeling part of a community of caring, kind, and loving people is a huge help in our ability to face hardships. It’s like having a bulletproof vest for our soul.

Thank you for your messages of love, support, and strength so we can face this head on. I am frustrated that I have to wait to get answers but also recognizing that I can use this time to gear up and work on that bulletproof vest for my soul.