so, I'm waiting on the edge of my seat for the results!

If you’re like me, you hate not knowing. I really dislike that I will get test results that are hopefully negative (which of course means positive) but that due to sampling errors and granularity of the test you won’t actually know that there isn’t a problem until it’s a big problem. But that is my task for this week. To wait patiently for the results of the FNA. Yes, you read that right. I had an FNA test. Those words actually came from my doctor’s mouth: “I need to get stuff for the FNA”. Now that really meant that he was going to do a “Fine Needle Aspiration”, which is a fancy word for biopsy . So a few minutes later he returns with a big grin and an even bigger needle that he plunged into my leg without any prior numbing - think epi-pin from pulp fiction. If you have no idea why I'm doing this you missed last week's "Doctor Roulette" post regarding the ER visit on Saturday (6/12) and my subsequent visit to the PA (physician's assistant) on Tuesday (6/15) where she looked at my ultrasound results and my PET and CAT scans. By the time I saw my oncologist that Friday he was thoroughly briefed on my medical analysis and random guessing as to what might be going on. He concurred with my conclusion that the lump that could be felt was a lymph node. Todd had not been convinced, but that’s why we went with the majority votes. Isn’t that what they meant by “team of doctors”? I should preface these things by saying that my doctor was not concerned. He was not expecting to find anything, but that's part of the uncertainty, right? Finding nothing doesn't mean there isn't something....

Back to the task on hand - my FNA: So, the poking wasn’t too bad (less painful than a tattoo) and I only gushed a little bit of blood. My doctor smeared it onto some slides and got them sent off to a lab. And here we are three business days later waiting to find out if the enlarged lymph nodes – which could be enlarged for any number of logical reasons – turn out to be cancerous. Still waiting… Still waiting… Still waiting…

So, to take my mind of things I did some actual work – which is totally unauthorized when you’re on short term leave. But I guess it’s not amazing given how much I love my job that I would opt to sift through workpapers on a day when I should just enjoy being drugged up by a cocktail of junk.

P.S. Shortly after finishing this blog my oncologist came to visit me dressed in his fashionable green scrubs. Coming directly from surgery he wanted to share the great news that my FNA was negative (which is positive). So, we get to rest easy until my next CAT scan, which will be in about three weeks.