Prepare for flight - 2023 05 05

 


Prepare for flight.

The doctor's appointment was at 10:30 am, about a 10 minute drive. I started to get Mom ready at 9:30 am so she was all dressed and ready to go out in her wheelchair at 10 am. My brother arrived and wheeled Mom out to the car. We found an easy parking spot and were in the office on time.

Doctor saw us right away. A very smooth trip from home to doctor's office. Mom was able to handle getting in and out of the car, not easily, but without too much pain and no stumbles or falls (!).

The first thing Doctor noticed was the skin on Mom's forehead, which I thought was dry but it turns out is a kind of cancer. He applied dry ice to the problem areas. He asked if there were any other skin anomalies to look at. I remembered a couple of spots on Mom's arms, and Doctor identified two more kinds of cancer.  He gave us a referral to a Dermatologist, and said it would not be too difficult to take care of these problems.

The lump on Mom's neck is concerning and Doctor referred us for ultrasound and x-ray to gather more information. It is possible the lump is indicating cancer somewhere else in Mom's body, and the cancer cells have flowed into the lymph node and are now growing there. We will know more after the ultrasound and x-ray.

Ok. Luckily my brother was taking rapid notes and getting the names of all the different kinds of cancer written down. It was enough for me to pay attention to everything Doctor was telling us and helping Mom with the examination.

Doctor listened to Mom's lungs and declared they were all clear. So that was a big positive.

We wheeled out of the doctor's office and got loaded into the car. A little dazed at the new information we were processing. Mom was in good spirits, as usual.

My brother suggested we go to the White Spot drive-in for milkshakes. Great idea! While we waited for the milkshakes I asked Mom if she understood what the doctor had told us. She seemed to have some idea of what we had learned, she was not too perturbed by the new information.

We all sat in the car slurping on the creamy, sugary deliciousness; remembering all the times we had gone to White Spot over the years, with Mom.

We got home without incident and Mom went for a lie down. 

Prepare for flight.

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