selenak: (Default)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote2004-08-20 12:48 pm

RL stuff

Firstly, thanks everyone for your good wishes. I didn't want to post until I had definite news, but due to recent developments and my self control slowly going to pieces, I broke this sensible resolution.

Warning: if any of you are in the medical profession, don't take slurs that follow personally. I just need to vent, and I'm really, really on edge.

So: last week, via her annual check-up, my mother found out she had a tumour at her ovary. Whether it was benign or malign couldn't be discovered. However, my aunt, her sister, has cancer and already lost a breast, and her chemotherapy is going nowhere (right now, for example, she can hardly speak), so you can imagine how that news felt like.

Yesterday morning I brought my mother to the hospital our doctor had recommended as the best for these kind of operations (we do have one in Bamberg, it just doesn't have a very good reputation) , in Neumarkt, where she was supposed to be operated today by the surgeon who's the expert, and who had promised to do it. I stayed with her for most of the day. In the evening she was informed that the surgeon in question, henceforth christened That Bastard, would not operate after all (he wanted to go on vacation on the weekend, you see), another doctor would. Then the replacement surgeon, newly informed he'd operate, arrived, had a look at the files and said he wasn't sure whether the genuine operation was necessary at all and whether it hadn't been a wrong diagnosis and maybe it would just be a small scale operation on Friday, followed by a big one if after all the big one should be necessary.

None of us got any sleep last night. And I don't want to imagine what my mother felt like.

This morning, Dad was the one who drove to Neumarkt (it's about an hour away from Bamberg), and he's still there. Mum is back from the operating table, but does anyone of the medical staff tell my father what the results were, whether it's a small scale and over case, or a small scale then big scale case, and whether the bloody tumour is out completely? No. And I can't go to Neumarkt because someone has to mind the bloody telephone.

So now I'm waiting and waiting for news, and devising imaginative ways to kill off That Bastard in fiction, and practising discipline as not to yell at the staff when I do get to Neumarkt. And I keep telling myself it was benign, or maybe Replacement Guy was right and it wasn't what was diagnosed originally, but then why won't anyone tell Dad?

Then I switch between reading books, the 'net for uplifting news, and calling my father yet again.

[identity profile] hobsonphile.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
*hug*

I've been there for both of my parents. Hang in there- I'll be thinking of you today.

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
*hugs you back*

Thank you.

[identity profile] altariel.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
Hell, I'm really sorry *hugs*

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 04:53 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. Meanwhile, what would be the most humiliating way for a surgeon to die (in a short story)?

[identity profile] altariel.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
They are often people who value their own competence, and who value a sense of control. So I would have it happen in such a way as to undermine their expertise, and I would have it happen slowly. I bet Roald Dahl came up with something.

[identity profile] robynbender.livejournal.com 2004-08-21 08:56 am (UTC)(link)
Some years ago, a surgeon whom I hated with the fiery hate of a thousand suns was out at his weekend place / hobby ranch, doubtless annoying the hired help by playing with the equipment, and rolled a big heavy piece of farm machinery. Didn't kill him, but broke a great many of his bones, which put him in a hospital bed for many, many weeks. At the local hospital, where he had bullied many nurses. Gave me considerable satisfaction.

Just a suggestion *veg*

So glad your news got better!

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-22 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
And an excellent suggestion it is! Thank you.
andraste: The reason half the internet imagines me as Patrick Stewart. (Default)

[personal profile] andraste 2004-08-20 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
*hugs*

I was only a small child when my mother had kidney cancer (benign, as it turned out, but it still made her quite sick) but The Aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after I moved in with her. Luckily in her case they caught it early, but the day they found out they hadn't got it all and would have to operate again was still awful.

I will be thinking of you, and will do my best to provide shiny distractions.

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you. Reading that the Australian Region of Doom finally provided you with season 4 DVDs and that thus the Vid of Splendour is a likely prospect did distract me and made me smile in the middle of hurling yet another curse at the collective heads of the medical staff.

Did you get my mails yesterday with the attachments?
andraste: The reason half the internet imagines me as Patrick Stewart. (Default)

[personal profile] andraste 2004-08-20 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
Reading that the Australian Region of Doom finally provided you with season 4 DVDs and that thus the Vid of Splendour is a likely prospect did distract me and made me smile in the middle of hurling yet another curse at the collective heads of the medical staff.

It should only take a day or two. I'm stuck on an X-Men bit, but I think I'll end up deciding that there is no perfect clip for that bit and the next best thing will have to do.

Did you get my mails yesterday with the attachments?

Yes - and I danced and went squee *g*. Will report back when I have read the lovely, lovely attachments!

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
Do so.*g*
kernezelda: (Default)

[personal profile] kernezelda 2004-08-20 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
Gah! on your behalf. I'll be thinking of you and your folks.

As for awful fates for a surgeon, maybe Blake's threat to Kayn in B7's "Breakdown"? Destroy his hands...

Thank you, and...

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
That's the spirit. Good idea!

[identity profile] penknife.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry. Dealing with doctors can be awfully frustrating.

*hugs* I hope all goes well.

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
So do I...

[identity profile] illmantrim.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
huggs and adds my hopes and prayers to the others...

sends along Londo and G'Kar to amuse themselves with the annoying Bastard

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! And they're always welcome, with a pain technician or two, perhaps...

[identity profile] illmantrim.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
chuckles Londo, G'Kar, and Bester walk into a bar...

[identity profile] bubosquared.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 06:23 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, hon. *hug*

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2004-08-20 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
*hugs you back*