Tuesday 30 June 2009

Fun Day at the Hospital

No, really.

My first roommate of the day was a woman who has been undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer for eight years . She has had 6 operations. She had all those things removed that I talked about a couple of weeks ago: bladder, intestine, anus, etc. But she doesn't have pouches. Her primary care is at a specialist research clinic in Lyon and she says the excision is temporary and then they put something back. I do believe I read something on the internet about that, but didn't understand it.

I almost fell out of bed when she told me she was 70. She looks 50. And, like me, she says she doesn't get colds or otherwise sick. (One of the nurses mentioned this phenomenon to me a few months ago.) "In fact," she says, channelling me, "if it weren't for the cancer, I'd be really healthy."

What more encouragement could I ask for?

I picked up my blood results on the way to the hospital. Good thing, because they were faxed to the wrong number. Anyway, I have platelets. Lots of platelets. More platelets than I've had since last summer.

5 comments:

  1. Hooray for platelets!

    Olga, improvising a platelet dance

    ReplyDelete
  2. Must have been very heartening meeting this woman. What a story. I will check this excision stuff out. Never heard of "putting something back". Platelets get a treat AND a belly rub. WTF wrong #? Some stranger has your info now? What about the second roomie and the rest of the day?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Platelets are a beautiful thing.
    Interesting about the roommate, and her surgery.
    Worth looking into.
    Karen, will try to google after class

    ReplyDelete
  4. And happy birthday!
    Karen

    ReplyDelete