I worked in the morning so I wasn't there for the EKG or the surgery for the most part. I will say, getting there in the middle of the day SUCKS. I had picked up Aiden before I went down to the hospital and when we got to the garage, it took 5-6 rotations up and down the 7 levels of the garage to get a parking space, I'd say it took us 30-40 minutes. Anyways, on to Patti's day:
Dr. Barachova and the techs that diagnose the different cancers couldn't conclusively say it was Hodgkin's Lymphoma. They were 99.9% sure but you don't mess around with cancer and even though we actually don't have the results yet, we're just going to keep on going on calling it Hodgkin's.
Along with the biopsy they had scheduled an EKG right before hand. Normally they wouldn't ask for one but since we were going through with the experimental chemo drug, they sponsors wanted an extra look at Patti's heart. The day, though, started like any normal day for us; I went to work while Patti took Aiden to school. A few hours later Patti's Dad picked her up and took her downtown. Again we'll stop right here and thank Don for putting off his busy day to take Patti to the U. An EKG (Electrocardiogram) is similar to the Echo-Cardiogram Patti had earlier but this was a lot quicker and Patti was in and out in no more than 10 minutes.
Next up both Don and Patti went back to the hospital to get ready for her surgical biopsy. For this biopsy Patti was rendered unconscious and a breathing tube was put down her throat. In the middle of this surgery she suddenly had an asthma attack and her throat seized up around the tube. That is something I know Don didn't want to hear about but thankfully she pulled through it by the quick work of the doctors giving her albuterol (interestingly enough the spell checker wants me to change 'albuterol' to butterball, sorry I found that amusing).
Patti has a large lump on her neck of an enlarged lymph node. The doctor made about a two inch cut underneath it and extracted a portion of it for the hospital's tests and for the sponsors of the new chemo drug. At this time I showed up with Aiden and waited with Don in the lobby. Aiden was very good, somewhat nervous, but with some fruit snacks and water he waited just fine and Don even started showing him pictures of Halloween at the Como Zoo on the hospital's computer.
The nurse came out awhile later and said Patti was ready to receive visitors and I took Aiden in. Patti's Dad had some objections about the room scaring Aiden, and I knew it probably would but it will become our life for the next 6 months so I thought we might as well get him used to it. He was very nervous coming in and at first didn't want to get close to Patti. There were a lot of machines and he didn't like any of them and seeing his Mom hooked up to them made him more than a little bit scared. Patti did what she usually does and make jokes, coaxed him over to her and made him feel more comfortable. For someone who had just been through surgery, she was abnormally happy, even the nurses thought so. This helped calmed down our little trooper and soon he was smiling as well, you could tell he was still a little nervous but he took the situation quite well.
I think we were in there for just over a half an hour before Patti was allowed to leave, tons of questions, and a prescription later for some very nice pain killers, we were on our way.
The ride home was awesome with all the traffic jams and the fact that Patti forgot to go to the BATHROOM before we left (sigh...children). We didn't make it to Aiden's Cubbies night at church which was actually his decision not ours haha and that is how we ended our long day.
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