My adventure with cancer. Not over yet. Part 1...

Anyone reading this already knows that I have cancer, who am I kidding, no one reads this. The metrics show me that I have few to no visitors. Maybe that will change? Maybe it won't? Anyways, here goes. This whole thing started when I had this odd lump on my neck, I knew it was a lymph node, I just figured that I had some kind of infection and my body was dealing with it. It got bigger and bigger, not huge mind you, but big enough that a co-worker at the time, We'll call her "Fish" (not for any reason than that's what I call her) started suggesting to me that I get it checked. I waited and waited and she continued to suggest. Finally I went to see my VA (Veterans Administration) doctor. She had me do labs, and palpated (pressed on it and moved it around) it. Then made a face. It'll be a long time before I can forget that face she made. She sent me to the Surgeon at the closest VA hospital. I didn't like that doctor from day one. Not too sure why, I just didn't vibe well off of him. He told me that they would have to do a biopsy, and I agreed. I'm pretty sure that it was at that moment that I decided that I had cancer. Fatalistic? Maybe, but sometimes you just know a thing. He talked about it but never said the word "Cancer" he'd say malignant cells, or malignancy, but never say the "C" word. I don't think I was ever truly scared of it being cancer. I just kind of accepted it.

So to do the biopsy, they used some kind of numbing agent, something with "Caine" in the name, that wasn't strong enough as an outpatient procedure. It hurt like a motherfucker, and the surgeon and pathologists kept telling me that I couldn't feel it? How exactly do you tell someone what they can and can't feel? I've always had a strong tolerance for the numbing agents for some reason. I almost started cussing them out at that point. After they were finished, I got up and immediately layed back down. I managed to stumble along with help to the receptionist to make a follow up appointment.

A few weeks went by and I had my follow up, filled with more malignant, but not the word cancer. I was told that they were going to excise the tumor. That's what they were calling it now, a malignant tumor. Malignant tumor = Cancer. Sorry if that is upsetting to anyone reading this. Again, no one reads this. I'm pretty sure that it was at that point that I decided that this woud either kill me, because as yet I didn't know what type it was, or it would become this great story about that time I had cancer.

September 2016 I went to the hospital, they removed the lymph node and sent it off for further testing....

October 2016 Follow up for the surgery. I actually called the doctor out on not using the word cancer as he was telling me that I was being referred to the Oncology department.

Let's Examine

• Malignant = Cancer
• Malignant Tumor = Cancer
• Oncology/Oncologist = Cancer Specializing Doctors

Yet they still didn't use the word cancer, I did. I said to him "So I have cancer." he didn't acknowledge the statement. So I went home and waited for my appointment slip in the mail. Instead I got a phone call.....

Tri-west, a medical insurance company called me and was setting up my appointment for Cabrini Cancer Center I had been outsourced to a private hospital!

This, as it turns out, is not a bad thing. At first I knew it would be a headache, and it has been. This happened. But as it has been, in some ways a small blessing.

My Oncologist and I didn't necessarily hit it off, Ulla Ule, yes that is her real name. Or she uses a pseudonym so that angry family members don't hunt her down for her inability to cure terminal cancers. Possible but unlikely. Anyways she was the first Doctor to actually the "C" word. She told me what type it was and observed that if I had to choose a cancer, of all the kinds there are, I have one of the best to have, very low mortality rate. Which is a nice way to say that it's not likely to kill me.