Something peculiar happened while I’ve been healing from my appendectomy surgery over the past few weeks.
My sister, who some of you may or may not know online as MissFiasco, also went in for medical guidance under the impression that she had a urinary tract infection. If you recall from my previous post detailing my own medical issues, I also originally went to see a doctor thinking that I had a UTI and just needed some antibiotics. Instead, they had to do emergency surgery on me to remove my appendix and also diagnosed me with diabetes since my blood sugar was crazy high at the time. When my sister announced that she was also going to the doctor for a UTI, I immediately and only half-jokingly remarked, “Let’s hope they don’t have to pull anything out!”
I should have shut my mouth because it turns out that she has cancer in her kidney, which is what was causing the UTI in the first place.
There may be many of you who aren’t totally terrified by the idea of cancer, but I find it scary as hell. Cancer took the lives of my mother and various grandparents and other relatives, and now my sister has it. “Cancer” is understandably a bad word in my world. When she told us that this was her diagnosis, I immediately wanted to cry. Hasn’t this illness wreaked enough havoc on our lives as it is? Why does it consistently feel like it needs to be a recurring presence? Furthermore, what am I supposed to do without my sister? She has sometimes been one of my only supporters since day one and frequently my friend and playmate in all our gaming sessions. I can’t do without her!
I’m taking comfort though in the knowledge that, these days, they say that cancer isn’t necessarily a death sentence, and what’s even more fortunate is that my sister’s cancer doesn’t seem like it’s spread elsewhere and is contained to the kidney, which can just be removed. One doctor was quoted as even having told her that if he was to get cancer, this is the one he would want since it’s common and was caught fairly early. The only issue now is finding someone who isn’t afraid to do the surgery. She met with one anesthesiologist this week who refused to do the surgery due to some other issues with her medical history, so now she’s being sent to the University of Kansas to see if it’s something their team can handle. We’ve joked about how we’ve all watched enough Grey’s Anatomy in our time that we could probably remove the kidney safely if need be. Whatever the case may be, we need someone who knows what they’re doing and can get this monster out of her.
Quite frankly, between my own surgery and her cancer, I’m already sick of medical issues plaguing us and I’m ready for things to go back to a relative normal. This year so far has been pretty full of wild things happening anyway — moving to Kansas, losing and then finding Cinnamon, quitting my job, having surgery, this cancer scare — that I think I’m justifiably ready for things to settle down in the back half of the year. Hopefully, once my sister gets her surgery and heals up, everything will be back to routine.
Until next time…