Let's face it .. waiting SUCKS!!!
Whether you’re waiting for triple tequila margarita to be brought to your table after a very long day, waiting for the world’s slowest gas pump to burb out the mere 5 gallons of gas that you can afford, waiting for someone to belatedly appear when your appointment was supposed to begin 40 minutes earlier or .. sitting in a room waiting for a particular dreaded test to begin! Maybe that’s why they give you THOSE gowns .. to distract you!! It doesn’t work!!!!
So .. the clock ticks louder and its hands move more slowly when you are standing in a room waiting .. waiting for the technician or doctor to come in .. waiting for it to begin .. waiting for it to be over.
Nuclear Medicine Dept., Scanner, UMC - Brackenridge: Here we go again!
Big rooms, big windows, lots of light helps BUT I’m thinking that the ONLY thing to make the scanning tube a little more bearable would be a slide show of hunky half-dressed firemen – like the one on my office wall (hey .. I’m old, not dead!). Two and a half hours following the injection of radioisotopes. I’m sure it was just my wild and overworked imagination make me feel them circulating. It was my blind faith that had me talking to them and telling them that I was counting on them to tell the doctors and I exactly what we needed to know.
Ultrasound, UMC - Brackenridge: Hey, I had nothing else to do but take a photo!
Next up .. a small, dark room .. no worry says the technician – this is only take 45 minutes. Oh, thanks – only 45 minutes on my back, shoulders retracted, head pulled back and throat left open and bare. She did NOT appreciate my saying in my best imitation of me ol’ Scottish granny, “Yu kin take muh life but yu’ll never take muh frrrreeeedom.” Obviously she knew naught about William Wallace!
So at long last I was released and sent home to .. say it with me .. WAIT!! And, can you believe it, my primary doctor was out of the country of vacation. OMG, who told him he could take vacation AND outside the US? Didn’t he know I was waiting? Awesome guy that he is, he touched base with his office every couple days and he got the results. While he couldn’t call me, he had another doctor from the practice call me with the news. Hmmmm, maybe that’s why he took a vacation outside the country; he didn’t want to be the one to call.
News broken, I sat in my living room and waited. Waited for my heart to slow make down and my lungs to start functioning again. Waited for my brain to stop speaking in gibberish and to start processing all of the implications. What I did NOT do was to wait until I spoke to my doctor before I climbed up on the Internet and started researching the tumor and the surgery AND what effect it might have on my! Oh stupid girl … as you seek so you will find!! Yep .. I did that and what I found scared the bejeebers out of me.
I did finally get in to talk to my doctor and he laughingly said, “I can tell you’re a singer, you haven’t asked whether I think it’s benign or not benign but WHAT ABOUT MY VOICE? Now – will you remove the dagger from my back?” Together we decided that I had no options for anything other than surgery .. the tumor was having to much of an impact on other parts of my body. And he gave me his recommendation to the best surgeon for this particular procedure. Sigh .. that appointment was made and again I had to wait to meet with him!
Being a singer, I had 2 thoughts: what’s the best option to try and save my voice and, if my music is coming to an end, I better get my duff in gear and get some more made! Right?!!! What better distraction than making music!! WHAAAAAT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WAIT FOR YOU TO COME BACK FROM YOUR TOUR? WAIT FOR THE STUDIO TO HAVE AVAILABILITY? WAIT .. WAIT .. WAIT .. ARRRGHH!! Waiting sucks!!!
