Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Happy Lumpiversary and 'Bye, Felicia.

Five years ago I was sitting in my dentist's chair when his hygienist found a lump on my hard palate. The lump, known as Cap'n Lumpy after that, turned out to be a rare-ish form of minor salivary gland cancer called polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma.

It started a year-long freakout on my part, most of which is documented on this here blog, that culminated in my wearing a cool plastic-and-metal prosthetic to replace the chunk of my mouth that a surgeon removed.

I'm not sure how I feel about this, so I'm gonna just mark this lumpiversary and leave it be. I have the latest set of scans (CT and MRI) coming up week after next. I'm not sure how I feel about that, either. Maybe it'll be easier once I transition to once-a-year rather than once-every-six-months scanning; maybe it'll be a whole new kind of hell. We'll see.

In other news, Keith is gone. I don't know the details, having been on vacation this last two weeks, but he's been relieved of his duties at Sunnydale and has gone back to the pit that spawned him. It probably had something to do with a patient decompensating to the point that she had to be intubated on his watch, with nobody but him being aware of it. I don't know. All I know for sure is that I can work now without having to worry about somebody else's patients as well as my own.

So. One okay thing, one good thing. Not a bad way to start off the new year.

12 comments:

bobbie said...

Sending "negative" results happy thoughts your way ~

And YAY on Kevin being gone!!

Elle said...

Re Keith: "And now is ze time on Sprockets vhen ve dance!!!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHZR9SA5pOg

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh, I will miss the Keith stories!!

CrowsCalling said...

Woot! And sing!

Janey said...

YAY FOR NO MOAR KEVIN!

Thanks for the recommendation in previous post about dead florence. Love it.

clairesmum said...

Good news...hoping all scans negative next week!

DRG said...

I bet you'll be fine with once a year scanning. The time flies by, and you have to do it less often. I had a low grade brain tumor 17 years ago, and am now at a two year scan interval. It took me a while to be ready to drop back to that long an interval, but once I went over to it, I found I liked it. In my case, and I assume in yours, too, if you get nervous about it, you can get a scan sooner.

I'm not a nurse, don't work in the medical field at all - just love your blog. I am so glad that 1) Kevin is gone; 2)you are not - you are still there looking out for us patient-types. We need you. Thanks for all you do!

jwg said...

I just hope he wasn't just shunted off to another hospital and that steps were taken to hang him by his thumbs, or whatever is the nature of professional discipline where you are.

salsabike said...

Well, hallelujah on the Keith thing. And best wishes on the scans. I'm glad you are five years down the road.

gela said...

Good luck on the scans. I will miss your Keith store but for everyone's sake I'm glad he is gone. Hopefully, it will be awhile before the next "Keith" comes along.

RehabNurse said...

Prayers for you, jo.

At least the ones about Keith have been answered. Hallelujah! Just hope the BON finishes it off, so no one else suffers.

Vi said...

Yayyyyyy on Keith!