Submitted for your perusal: a partial list of painful, time-consuming procedures, treatments, and surgeries…
… imposed by Lynch Syndrome, colon cancer, Muire-Torre Syndrome, various skin cancers, leukemia, and prostate cancer or by the treatments, side effects, and side effect mitigations for all the above.
Note: Some fall into the “one and done” category. Many are in the “frequent flyer” category.
Peripheral Blood Draws (hundreds, frequent, ongoing).
Hemicolectomy Surgery.
Skin biopsies: hands, forearms, elbows, upper arms, shoulders, calves, thighs, knees, chest, back, belly, groin, neck, cheeks, chin, forehead, scalp, nose, eyelid, and nose (Hundreds, ongoing).
Colonoscopies & Endoscopies (dozens, annually at least, ongoing).
Umbilical Hernia Surgery (complication from Hemicolectomy).
Skin Cancer Surgeries (dozens, frequent, ongoing).
Bilateral Nephrostomy (and complications).
Chest Port Installation.
Imaging with Radioactive Tracers (dozens, ongoing).
Pelvic bone marrow biopsy.
Upper arm bone marrow biopsy.
Prostate biopsy.
Liver biopsy.
Bladder biopsy.
Cystoscopies (many, onoing).
Foley Catheterization.
Radiation Treatments.
Chemotherapy infusions (many dozens, frequent, ongoing).
Your excellent writing somehow manages to transmute straw (or worse) into gold. Enjoy the gold.
The depth of compassion and empathy that come across in your most kind words are a magic medicine, Teresa… a cure for the indescribable loneliness of it all… as well as a much-needed vote of confidence that what I’m doing here means something.
Thanks again for having the courage to walk with me.
PS. You express yourself so eloquently in just a handful of words. Do you have other outlets for your most meaningful and inspirational use of language?