finally the results are in!

All twelve of Dan's biopsy samples came back clean and cancer free. They now think that he has inflammation of the prostate, which is why it is enlarged and his PSA blood levels are high.

Thank God.

and still waiting!

Still no word on the biopsy results! It will be two full weeks tomorrow!

In the meantime, I have been feeling increasingly tired the last week or so, to the point where all I have energy for is going to work (the dirty laundry pile in my room is nearly as tall as I am) and sure enough, the blood test they pulled last Friday came back with my thyroid levels too low, and they will be increasing my synthroid dose. Hopefully I will be feeling better soon.

At least the Wings have a commanding 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals against the Blackhawks.

still waiting...

Still have not heard the results for Dan's biopsy. It should have been 3-5 days according to all of the medical articles I googled. It is now over a week, and this is getting old very quickly.

At least the Red Wings are still playing and keeping my mind off of more serious issues. They won their game seven against the Duckies, and won their first game in the Western Conference finals against the Blackhawks. I missed being able to watch both games due to work. Let's go Red Wings!

waiting for the biopsy results

Waiting...waiting...dreading...hoping.

In the meantime, both the Tigers AND the Red Wings lost tonight. Bah. Humbug. Now the Wings will have to play a seventh game in their series against Anaheim - and ANYTHING can happen in a game seven. You can end up losing the series on a bad bounce of the puck or a bad call from an official. I hate game sevens.

the biopsy

We got up early and Dan and I drove to Livonia. Why Livonia? Why, when we are long time University of Michigan health care system patients and live a few miles from Ann Arbor did we have to drive to Livonia? That is a darned good question, and one I would like to have answered. Surely they must do prostate biopsies at the University of Michigan Hospital or the adjacent Taubman outpatient facility? Or even the east Ann Arbor center where I had my colonoscopy? So why did we have to drive to Livonia in the Detroit suburbs?

But anyway we got there, and they took Dan on back. I waited in the waiting area, and did not realize how long he had been back there until I finished the book I took with me in my purse, and noticed how far along the morning had gotten...

Turns out they did the procedure, and took the samples. And then Dan's blood pressure plunged and he tried to pass out on them while still on the examination table.

They eventually realized I would be worried sick, and came to get me to sit with him. He was dehydrated, and they gave him lots of water to drink, and he had not eaten yet that day, so they gave him some food to eat. All of that seemed to help, and his blood pressure came back up to a more normal level, and they finally let him leave.

We went to the nearby Panera Bread for some lunch. I thought soup and some lemonade would further help him, and they did seem to.

We got home and he climbed into bed and stayed there for the rest of the day while I ran errands and Bill kept an eye on him.

Today the poor man was driving us crazy with his grouchiness and constant demands. He is moving very stiffly like he has a baseball bat stuffed up where the sun does not shine (and they do go in to get biopsy samples via the man's rear end), and seems to be in a lot of pain, so the grouchiness is perfectly understandable. Hopefully he will feel a bit better, and move a little more easily, tomorrow.

He is not supposed to lift anything heavier than ten pounds for a week. That leaves out both cats (they both weigh more than ten pounds), some bags of groceries, laundry, etc. etc. I do not know how he will work next week, but he says he will find a way...

Wings win! work week over! biopsy in the morning!

The work week is over! YAY!!! Tomorrow a friend might come over, and we will exchange yard plants. I will give him some raspberry vines, and in return get some crane's bill geraniums from his yard.

The Wings won game four in their second round series against the Ducks. The series is now tied 2-2, with two of the three remaining games to be played in Detroit. We have a chance! YAY!!!

Poor Dan has his biopsy in the morning. He is not happy, to say the least. Apparently they do a biopsy of a man's prostate via his butt, and let's just leave it at that.

And, of course, there is anxiety over the biopsy for other, more obvious, reasons.