Ah, the voice

During this whole ordeal of dealing with the cancer docs, the labs, the tests, the ups, the downs, etc., there's been one constant.

Her name is Brenda, and since late September she's been the "other" woman in my life. And Catherine is cool with that.

Brenda (photo at right from the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute's Web site) is a nurse who coordinates the treatments for all thoractic cancer patients in the Florida Hospital system. She's been the person who deals with my doctors, then the new doctors, the labs, and even the schedulers who, for example, organized my various tests this week.

This morning, for example, Brenda called to tell me that we would not, under any circumstance, be able to schedule a biopsy of my liver for today. It would have to be Friday at the earliest, and she'd get back to me after 1.

This was good. It meant I could have breakfast with Catherine. A bagel, cream cheese and some juice. Of course, as Murphy would write in a law at some time or another, as soon as I swallowed the last bite of bagel, the final gulp of OJ, the phone rang. Brenda calling. "Did you eat yet?" she asked. I told her I had just finished, but it was only a bagel and juice. She said she might be able to get me in for the biopsy today. But the doctor's office asked if I ate. She'll call me back.

It turned out that it was OK. So we drove to Florida Hospital. A few blood tests later and I was on a gurney awaiting my turn for the biopsy. Woo hoo.

It was as I waited for the procedure that I met the voice. Brenda knew I was in house and decided to walk over to the radiology outpatient area and introduced herself. The voice and the face now go together. I'm so glad she stopped by. Wish I had a photo of Brenda, and if I find one I will add it here. She's a good person and helped ease my concern about the biopsy procedure.

Speaking of which, the procedure wasn't awful but would not exactly call it pleasurable or even comfortable. The doctors were grabbing with a needle guided by another CT scan some tissue from my liver where those "spots" showed up on my PET and CT scans. Thankfully, Dr. Z said the CT scan revealed they didn't have the standard shape of a cancer growth, though that doesn't mean they're not cancer. They might just be remnants of my radiation treatments or they could be cysts on the liver.

I should find out either Friday or Monday just what they "spots" are, and I'm hoping they're not cancer. I'll let ya know.