Columbus and the Valley

$5,000 Tattoo

Thankfully, I have an appointment tomorrow at 1 p.m. for the CT simulation in advance of my radiosurgery on the kidney cancer metastasis in my spine. I have confirmed that no contrast dye will be used during the procedure, so I won’t have any unusual hydration during the run up to or after the simulation. I understand they’ll mark me up with a permanent marker and use the marks to line me up for the radiosurgery treatment. I’m not sure where those marks will be, but sounds like I’ll be getting my first tattoo, a $5,000 tattoo, that will take some time to wash off. The tat might be a teardrop coming out of one of my eyes after I take someone out if they don’t get me properly medicated before strapping me down. Don’t gang members get a teardrop tat when they whack somebody?

I’m hopeful that the actual radiosurgery will take place early next week, prior to Thanksgiving, giving me the long weekend to recuperate, but I won’t find out about scheduling until tomorrow while we’re at the Emory Winship Cancer Center.

Jill and I have had several conversations the past couple of days about the realities of this re-occurrence of my kidney cancer. I have enough information from my research to know that the rest of our lives are going to be very different. The bone metastasis is a signal that another met is probable. Jill and I and our team of doctors will be on high alert. At this point, I’m not sure about scan frequency. That is something Dr. Pippas and I will have to discuss. What we now know is that we have to live every day like it will be the last one. Come to think of it, we all need to be doing that every day, regardless of whether or not we’re battling a big illness.

The upcoming holiday time will be a sweet one for me. This is the first year that we will have all four of our sons at our Thanksgiving Day meal. Sharing them with other spouses has been a challenge in the past and circumstances have changed this year. I’m sad for the things that happened to make having them all together possible, but I’m so happy that we’ll all be together this year.

I’ll post again to let you know about the CT simulation. If you see me with that teardrop, you’ll know the claustrophobia got the best of me and someone had to pay the ultimate price.

On to Fry Day

Finally got word from Dr. Liza Stapleford this tonight around 7 p.m. that her caucus with Dr. Hadjapanayis confirmed that the radiosurgery has been green lighted. So it is on to Fry Day (a little radiation therapy humor). Dr. S says that someone will call me on Monday to set up the CT simulation and that it will likely be the week after Thanksgiving when I’ll go back up to Emory for the actual radiosurgery.

We had a great time tonight at Cher and Jeff Pitts’ home at their annual Auburn/Georgia barn party. We got to see a bunch of friends by the giant fire out in the chilly southern Russell County air. This has been such a fantastic day!