I stressed over finding the place. I know the neighborhood as being one of the ones I always manage to get lost in. I printed up trusty Googlemaps but turns out it's right near the entrance of the Hopital Civil, where I was for my H1N1 adventure. There was also a parking lot right across the street.
The decor was very 1960's at Strauss. My cleaning lady told me that it's a scary place, since it's a cancer center. Her mother was treated there but this was my first time walking inside. I didn't find it scary at all. I did find a bunch of people smoking outside a bit, well, gauche. I mean folks, a cancer center?? I had to walk through a thick cloud of carcinogenic blue smoke to just get inside.
Turned out it was an "open" MRI. Thank goodness. The only problem is that I didn't take the time to really get comfortable. The bar at my forehead started to really dig in and I had trouble breathing because of how the table pressed down on my diaphragm. That was because of the boob holes I had to lie over and let my thingies hang. Both could have been easier if I had taken two extra seconds to situate myself better. It was a very long 20 minutes.
It wasn't as loud as everyone said it would be. It wasn't quiet but it wasn't horrible either. I wish I could have picked the radio station though. I ended up with Top 40's followed by a broadcast of a soccer match in Colmar. Oh yeah.
The techs were nice, all young women. We were talking about the machine afterward and one kindly informed me "Well, most of our patients are actually here because they have cancer..." I kind of smiled. "Includes me! I'm being operated on Wednesday for Breast Caner." Oh!
I had to wait awhile to see Dr. S., who is Dr. N's partner at Adassa. He had bad news.
First, the tumor is bigger than the two previous estimates. 28mm or 2.8cm at the longest point. Ugh.
Worse. There is a second "site of concern". There is no way to tell if it's cancer or not. It's only 10mm and 3cm from the tumor.
Dr. S. thinks both can be removed in the same surgery and that it won't change my treatment. Still, I'm a little dizzy imagining all sorts of scenarios... I'm worried about mastectomies and chemo. I'm not even sure they'll have an impact. I'm just not sure.
One of the school moms just asked her doctor husband, who said that in theory, from that second-hand info, it shouldn't change anything.
Darned this long weekend! Monday is off and Dr. S. couldn't give Dr. G. my results yet because we were over at Strauss.
I went to services tonight with Davina.
The decor was very 1960's at Strauss. My cleaning lady told me that it's a scary place, since it's a cancer center. Her mother was treated there but this was my first time walking inside. I didn't find it scary at all. I did find a bunch of people smoking outside a bit, well, gauche. I mean folks, a cancer center?? I had to walk through a thick cloud of carcinogenic blue smoke to just get inside.
Turned out it was an "open" MRI. Thank goodness. The only problem is that I didn't take the time to really get comfortable. The bar at my forehead started to really dig in and I had trouble breathing because of how the table pressed down on my diaphragm. That was because of the boob holes I had to lie over and let my thingies hang. Both could have been easier if I had taken two extra seconds to situate myself better. It was a very long 20 minutes.
It wasn't as loud as everyone said it would be. It wasn't quiet but it wasn't horrible either. I wish I could have picked the radio station though. I ended up with Top 40's followed by a broadcast of a soccer match in Colmar. Oh yeah.
The techs were nice, all young women. We were talking about the machine afterward and one kindly informed me "Well, most of our patients are actually here because they have cancer..." I kind of smiled. "Includes me! I'm being operated on Wednesday for Breast Caner." Oh!
I had to wait awhile to see Dr. S., who is Dr. N's partner at Adassa. He had bad news.
First, the tumor is bigger than the two previous estimates. 28mm or 2.8cm at the longest point. Ugh.
Worse. There is a second "site of concern". There is no way to tell if it's cancer or not. It's only 10mm and 3cm from the tumor.
Dr. S. thinks both can be removed in the same surgery and that it won't change my treatment. Still, I'm a little dizzy imagining all sorts of scenarios... I'm worried about mastectomies and chemo. I'm not even sure they'll have an impact. I'm just not sure.
One of the school moms just asked her doctor husband, who said that in theory, from that second-hand info, it shouldn't change anything.
Darned this long weekend! Monday is off and Dr. S. couldn't give Dr. G. my results yet because we were over at Strauss.
I went to services tonight with Davina.
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