July 14, 2004
A Bit of Background
This is going to be a bit of a long post because it will cover about four months of my journey so far with Cancer.
In September of 2003 I found a lump under my tongue. It took me until the 30th of January this year to get around to having it looked at. These are the notes from my own personal diary.
30th January 2004
In September last year I found a lump under the left side of my tongue. It has taken this long, but today I went and saw an ENT (Ear Nose & Throat) specialist. The specialist referred me to S.t John of God Ballarat for an ultrasound and x-rays. The ENT doesn't think there is anything to worry about. Probably just a blocked saliva gland.
2nd February 2004
I went to Ballarat today and had the ultrasound and the x-ray of the area where the lump is. I had the ultrasound first. The guy doing the scan did absolutely nothing for my confidence when, after he had done the scan, he patted me on the arm and wished me good luck! Doesn't sound to good. The x-ray came back all clear. This means that there is no stone in the saliva gland. The ENT's rooms will ring with the results in a few days.
4th February 2004
I went to work this morning as normal, just another day, no feelings of impending doom. (Stupid crystal ball must be broken again.) I received a call at work at about nine thirty in the morning. It was the ENT's rooms wanting to know if I could be in Ballarat by 2pm for another ultrasound and a fine needle aspiration of the lump. No Problem. It is only an hour and a half from where I work to Ballarat. I kept working because I had plenty of time to get to Ballarat, or so I thought. I got another call at ten forty five to tell me that I had been booked in for and urgent MRI at 12:30. Yep! There is that sense of impending doom that has been missing all morning.
I stopped at home and picked up my husband and my mother. We finally made it to the MRI and we were only fifteen minutes late! After experiencing a full body MRI I can honestly say that I know what it would feel like to be the inside of a biro. I also discovered a wonderful fact about myself that should definitely be stored away for later reference. I am claustrophobic!!!
The three of us, Mum, Kev and I, ran from the MRI centre across the road to the Ultrasound centre because we were now running late for that appointment as well.
I would just like to say the person who said "FINE" needle biopsy must have been standing on the other side of the room when they looked at the needle and called it fine! At this point I definitely was starting to feel more than a little scared. The doctors and the nurse were standing over me and talking to each other as if I was not in the room. I did voice my concerns and let them know that I would definitely like to be included in the discussion. I finally got out of them that they planned to numb my chin and insert a needle through there and across to where the lump is. The needle would then take a tissue sample of the lump. They also told me that they would keep doing it until they felt that they had a good enough tissue sample. I thought that sounded fair so the procedure was begun.
After the anaesthetic was administered the biopsy needle was inserted at the point of my chin just under the jaw line. The needle was then guided, with the assistance of the ultrasound, to where the lump is. Let me say that although they did administer local anaesthetic and my chin was numb, the rest of my face and the area that they were biopsying most definitely was not! They took two samples which they were not really happy with and were just lining up to have a go at getting a third sample when I took the doctor by the wrist and told he that I would be f#@*!d if he would be doing that again! Needless to say that they had to be satisfied with just two samples.
After these two appointments I went over to the ENT's rooms. He assured me that he was just erring on the side of caution because then anything better that the worst news would be great. The ENT rooms will ring with the results
6th February 2004
I could not wait for The ENT rooms to ring so I rang them. They told me that they did not have the results. An hour later the rooms rang back to tell me that the ENT specialist would like a word with me. He told me that the results for the FNA were inconclusive and that the MRI had only showed the mass under my tongue. He also said that he did not feel comfortable leaving the lump there and that he had scheduled me for surgery on the 9th February. Now that it is crunch time I would just like to say, "It's my lump and I have grown quite attatched to it, can't it stay a little longer?" I am an absolute chicken when it comes to surgery. Finally common sense prevails and I agree to the surgery.
Posted by Possum on July 14, 2004 04:10 AM
gIro8p
Posted by: Nehhprvv at July 14, 2009 12:25 PM
gIro8p
Posted by: Nehhprvv at July 14, 2009 12:26 PM