It ain’t a sprint, it’s a marathon

Let me just jump right in …..

So, last friday, Elizabeth goes to the doctor. She calls me freaking out. “The doctor says I have the symptoms for Hepatitis A.” Well, hepatitis never sounds good so like any doctor who’s ever stayed at a Holiday Inn express (or Red Roof Inn) would do, I went to the google machine and looked it up. Apparently, you feel like crap for a few weeks but with antibiotics, its all cleared up in a matter of weeks. But, understandably, she’s worried. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. I gave her a hug (even though I could get something, that’s small potatoes, I laugh at hep A) and told her everything will work itself out and we’ll be back to normal in no time

Fast forward to tuesday of the next week. They call for an ultrasound. Wait……That doesn’t sound quite right. At least to me and probably to Elizabeth as well.

Wednesday, meet with the doctor. OK, there’s no hep A. Well alright alright alright. That’s great news. But there’s a blockage from the liver to the bile ducts. Might be stones, might be a gallbladder. Either way, its a relief right? No Hep A. Awesome. They did send us immediately to Baptist south for a cat scan to see what the blockage is because, there’s still the jaundice (yellow eyes and unbeknownst to me, yellow skin which apparently, she looked like a minion) and the itching. So we need to figure out what’s happening.

So, after checking in, answering the typical same hospital questions over and over and once more again (seriously, they type this stuff in and write it down, is that just for show?) we sit in a waiting room for two hours waiting for a cat scan while CNN blares the story about Donald Trumps relations with Russia, his meeting with Israel’s Netanyahu, and how these emails tie into eretile dysfunction medicines and walk in bathtubs (the commercials may have blended in at some point). So we go to a room to await the results.

Several people came in and out of the room. One doctor, who we’ll call Mumbles couldn’t get the mouse working on the computer (climbed under the desk at one point like a mechanic working on a transmission) and was about as non informative as drywall. However one doctor came in. After hearing the story of what was going on and the symptoms for 583rd time (seriously, why even write anything) she says, well I’ve got the results and pulls them out of her pocket like Maury Povich with the paternity results. There might be a tumor.

Tumor

Whatever she said after that was ignored. I looked at Elizabeth and we melted. Seriously? A tumor? Couldn’t be right. Or if it was, it was nothing right? It’s a hospital, they cut these out all the time. It’s like having your brakes squeal a little and they say, well, new rotors for you. It’s a bit of a pain and something you didn’t expect but it’ll be fine right?

Well……

The next morning the oncologist comes in. Apparently (and again, this is worst case scenario) Elizabeth has this rare form of Cancer called a “Klatskins Tumor”. I post the name so you can look it up and go, WTF! How in the world does she get one of the rarest forms of cancer. 1 out of 100000 cancer patients gets this! Not 1 out of 100000 people, no, 1 out of 100000 cancer patients!!!!! There’s like, 150 a year and we pulled this card? And it typically hits people from 65 to 80 years old. Yeah, and she’s not a liver abuser like myself or almost all my friends. Seriously, how does this happen? And so quickly. There’s really no answer except in this hand of cards we got thrown a stinker

Anyway, they ran tests (endoscopy) and got samples from the lymph nodes and from what the oncology doctor said, yeah, the cells are cancerous. At this time while Elizabeth was still knocked out I went outside, threw up and called my brother in law Jim (who I will never, ever be able to thank enough for his support) to alert everyone. I got back in the room before they wheeled Elizabeth back and……..well. That went about how you would expect. I think, well know, we’re still trying to wrap our head around this new reality

So here we are. I’m pretty confident we’ll bring Elizabeth home tomorrow (Saturday). They put a stint in her to get the liver function down to a normal level and hopefully get her back in her own bed where she can get some sleep and turn her brain off for a bit. We’re going to the Mayo Clinic where apparently the best guy in the world that handles this is at the hospital. And whatever they say, we do, and move on from there. We have a great group of people that are looking out for us and moving this along at a quick level that we all think this situation deserves. The support we’ve gotten from our friends and family is tremendous. I sure never realized how great we had it at that level. It’s overwhelming and I can’t thank you guys enough. Words cannot express the gratitude both Elizabeth and I feel knowing we have an army behind us. I’m going to keep doing this blog to let everyone know where we’re at in the process. Some days may be good, some may be bad. There may be times we just circle the wagons and dont pick up the phone or answer texts. Just know we appreciate the good thoughts, prayers, and mojo you send our way. And keep up with the blog. It’ll give me something constructive to keep my mind occupied and hopefully we’ll all get through it in one piece. Because as I heard one time in a elevator in Vegas and it really sums this up for the first three days, this ain’t a sprint guys, its a marathon. Love you all and blog at you soon.