Waiting Rooms
Mike was discharged from the hospital on Sunday afternoon. Then, my mom was admitted on Monday and is having surgery today to remove a tumor from her small intestines. The saga continues below.
Mike Update
He’s doing well overall. He’s tired and easily fatigued, but he’s recovering well. We’re still waiting on word for future treatments from the specialist. There will be something else, but we don’t know exactly what yet.
Mike’s feeling resolved to fight even harder and to try to work as much as he can through this next phase of his journey. When he originally started treatments, we put life on hold and merely focused on fighting the cancer because that’s what he needed to do to regain strength after all the surgeries, biopsies, tests, and travel. This time, we’re going to focus on living and use every strong moment for the enjoyment of life. Mike is alive and we’re celebrating life these days. Every moment of it.
Mom’s New Health News
My mom’s doctor called me on Monday morning while she was at a follow-up visit with him. She has had unexplained chronic itching from scalp to tiptoes for ten months. It’s been maddening for her. She has seen all the doctors and had all the tests. Skin biopsies, parasite tests, autoimmune tests, food and environmental allergies, iron studies and other blood deficiencies; you name it, it’s been done. Everything that could be completed without scans to look at internal organs was performed and she had no answers, just chronic itching that was debilitating and drastically reducing her quality of life.
She and her primary care doctor were working on eliminating medications to see if it was a reaction to something she had been taking long-term that just built up. She was at his office Monday morning (July 8th) to determine what the next step was to be.
She had been experiencing some new abdominal symptoms for about two weeks, so she asked her doctor to look at her belly while she was there. On her way, she called me from her car to tell me she was weak, shaky, had brain fog, and had no appetite for over a week (I didn’t realize she hadn’t been eating until this point). She had insisted that I not go with her to her appointment because she wanted me to get rest after being back and forth to the hospital with Mike the week before, so I reluctantly obeyed.
While she was at her appointment, I got a phone call with her doctor on speakerphone and he asked me to take her the ER. He strongly felt that her new abdominal symptoms should be scanned internally and possibly scoped. I picked her up and took her to the ER. They did bloodwork (mostly normal, as usual) and ordered a CT scan. By this point, mom was pretty dehydrated and had a bad headache and strong enough brain fog that I had to answer the medical questions for her.
While we were waiting for the CT results, I received a message from our favorite general surgeon, who was just checking on Mike. I told him Mike was recovering well, but I was sitting in the ER with my mom. He looked at her scan and was in her ER room within about 10 minutes saying “I’m glad you had me look at that scan.”
Turns out, mom has a mass in her small intestine causing a small bowel obstruction. The surgeon is nearly certain it is a carcinoid tumor (cancerous). There is good news with all this, though . . . the surgeon suspects this is what has been causing her uncontrollable chronic itching. These types of tumors can cause something called carcinoid syndrome, and itching and flushing is one of the major symptoms of that syndrome.
So, mom is having a small bowel resection today to remove the tumor. She also has a hernia near the same area of her belly that he’s going to fix while he’s in there.
I’m Weary of Waiting Rooms
I’m so tired of waiting rooms. Both literally and figuratively. Certain seasons of life feel like one big long waiting room. When there’s a critical illness, you’re always waiting on something. Waiting on doctor’s phone calls, waiting on medications, waiting on diagnoses, waiting on healing, waiting on procedures. But there’s also a spiritual waiting room season that comes along with all of that.
Spiritually, I’m waiting for God to move. Sometimes, while waiting for the big thing, I forget to notice that God is always active. He’s always doing something. Most times, as finite humans, we can’t see the activity God is orchestrating behind the scenes. I don’t know why this season of life has me sitting in so many waiting rooms, but I know it was lovingly filtered through the mighty hands of God. And because God permitted it, he will sustain me in it. He will be my strength. He will be my guide. He will give me rest when there’s none to be found. I’m trusting in that because what other choice do I have? The God who created all things, including me, including the wise doctors who are caring for my family so kindly, is big enough to let this rest on his shoulders and I’ll just rest in him.
