Chemo, CT Scans and Championships

I ended up rescheduling my chemo for Tuesday so I wouldn't miss Spencer's championship game. Turns out we had to spend our day at the doctors anyways, getting CT Scans. But not for me, for Spencer! He's been complaining about a sore left side. He says it's been hurting since Thursday but he didn't tell me about it until Saturday before his soccer game. Her said it hurt to breath, cough and move. He's been pretty much useless on the field since. Today I got him in to see the doctor at 11:45am. I was planning on him being out of school for an hour tops. Doctor felt his ribs and two were sore and it was sore between and under them. She didn't think he had a fracture, but she was worried about his spleen. She asked what he had going on the rest of the week. He mentioned his championship game tonight. She then said he needed to get an Ultrasound before she could clear him to play. She talked to the radiologist and they decided he didn't need an ultrasound, but he needed a CT Scan! They did a rush referral so they could get him looked at and the scan read by game time. If it was normal, he could play. If not, he would have to sit out. CT scan scheduled for 2pm. He had to drink two 16 oz bottles of Barrium Sulfate prior to the CT Scan at 1pm. Have any of you ever gotten a CT scan? I have. Every 3 months for the last two years in fact. Do you know how hard it is for me to drink that CRAP each time? I'm talking the drink is 500 times worse than the scan itself. And I'm not kidding. Can you now imagine my 13 year old son drinking two bottles of that CRAP in an hour? Do you know how skinny my son is? He has no room in the stomach for even one bottle. No kidding. It was pure torture for not only him, but for me to watch (and poor Paris too since she met us for coffee before the scan). I didn't think he was going to make it. Or that it was going to stay in his stomach for the scan. Plus he hadn't eaten since breakfast. I think he will have a new appreciation for what I now go through every 3 months.

The scan went well. I wasn't allowed to go back there with him and had to wait in the waiting room. That was hard for me. The tech came out and told me he did fine and even giggled because the contrast dye they inject into his IV made his bum warm and tingly. She thought he was so cute. :) That's my boy. LOL I then took him to get a couple bagels before his 415pm game and not long after the scan we got the all clear. No broken ribs or ruptured spleen. He was good to go. So dropped him off at school just as the school day was ending. He started the game but didn't last but a few minutes and was taken out because he said he felt like he was going to throw up. So much stuff sloshing around in his gut. He said he thought he was a liability so he opted not to play. I think the time he was in, he did great. I was sorry to spend all of that time, energy (and probably money!) at the docs, etc. making sure he could play and then not seeing him play. Especially since he had quite the crowd cheering him on. (thanks for coming out to see the game Grannie Seattle, Grampa and Ginger, not to mention all of the Catlin students!).It was a great game. They went all out. It was a real battle. It ended in a tie, 1-1. They were going to crown the two teams "Co-Champions" but the coaches met with the ref and athletic director and they decided to play two five minute OT periods. After the end of those, they would be co-champs if no clear winner. After the first OT, it was still tied. With a minute to go in the 2nd, OES scored a goal and won the championship. It was an aggressive game with several yellow cards awarded to players and even one OES kid getting ejected for taking his shirt off after scoring that second goal! Guess that's not allowed! Spencer was bummed they lost and that he didn't contribute. I was bummed he went through all of that today and for nothing really. :( He still didn't get to play because of the side effects from the scanning process. Oh well, it was a great season. So much fun to watch the games and the team work together. And to connect with the other parents. And most of all, to see Spencer gain his confidence and passion for the game back!Now tomorrow I have to get chemo, which means I'll have stupid Fillup the chemo pump until Thursday afternoon instead of breaking up with him on Wednesday like I usually do. :(

A couple cool opportunities for me:

1. The Writing Workshop I'm in is being filmed. Someone is making a documentary about it and they asked if they could follow me outside of class. Now that's reality tv!

2. I've been asked for a third time to be a patient teacher for the OHSU Living With Life Threatening Disease course for first year medical students. No one has ever been asked back twice, let alone three times, so I feel special! :) It's been such a great experience for both myself and my students and it's been a great way for me to give back to the community. Creating better doctors with understanding of what patients (and their families) go through during the course of their illness. Not just medically, but emotionally, financially, etc. All aspects. First hand. They will have more compassion and a better bedside manner because of this class! During the course of the class, I will be paired up with one student and will meet them on a weekly basis for 8 weeks I think. Last time I was randomly paired up with a woman who had lost her mother to cancer when she was ten. So it was very healing and beneficial for both of us, to understand and experience the other perspectives. It was amazing. I love doing it and am so honored they asked me.

Thanks for listening to me ramble!

Enjoy the rest of your week!
xoxox
Shauna