“The Days of Our Lives…”
No, I am not a soap opera fan, even though sometimes I feel like I live one. But, before I get into that, a story about soap operas… In 1978 and in 1986, during my recovery from different procedures, there came times of boredom where watching soap operas actually sounded interesting. To my surprise, in 1986, the plot, the setting, the characters, their ages, you name it, pretty much everything was identical to what it was in 1978. I wonder what they paid their writers for - it didn’t seem like much…
So why the reference to soap operas? Well, because that’s in many ways what 2021 has felt like. And it took another turn yesterday. Let me explain…
- After the last embolizations (late March), the doctor said he had two more blood vessels (in my neck, not my head) that he wants to embolize yet to reduce the risk of increased cerebral spinal fluid pressure. He wanted to do it 1 1/2 to 2 months later, so we picked a date of June 1.
- The last three embolizations all went well but all gave me significant side effects. Side effects that put me on disability and probably knocked me out of the full or even part time work force for the rest of whatever years God gives me. So, I’ve spent the last week dealing with increased anxiety over the coming treatment and would feel much better when it was done and it went the way the first 14 embolizations in my AVM career went.
- Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from my neurosurgeon’s office. My Dr. was on an “unexpected leave of absence” and the office staff had been instructed to cancel all appointments for the next 4 to 6 weeks and they hope to know more as time went on. The medical assistant I was on the phone with was obviously NOT enjoying having to make these phone calls and you could tell she was also worried and wondering what was going on with my Dr. as well.
So, here we stand. In the past we have gone to Mayo because no one in our area could handle a case as involved as mine. Do we wait for him? Do we watch things and hope he can come back and do it? Or do we have the #2 guy do it - even though in the past the #2 guy wasn’t experienced enough (he was a different doctor then).
Lots of questions, very few answers. Fortunately, the reason my doctor wants to do this last embolization is to prevent bigger problems from coming up, not because there is an emergency happening right now. So at least for now, we have time.
And such are the days of our lives…
TJ