Down the Rabbit Hole - Dodgy Daph's Medical Adventures pt 3

Well when they say the sun will always rise and moon will always shine and the stars will come out at night, "they" are not wrong.

I woke up to yet another  new room mate.  This was the third one so far (bleedin heck what am I a permanent fixture?) . anyway his name is Harry, he's in his 80's and he's got a wicked sense of humour.

I decide to leg it for a "real " latte before "coffee man" gets ahold of me,  and asked Harry if he wanted one,  "a chailatte" please he says.  Oooeerrr very new age of you Harry.  As I return to the ward after nodding and greeting all the nurses and students, I'm unfortunately "caught out" by coffee man as I am about to step into my room.  "Oh, two coffees is it, dunno why you'd go pay for those when you get them for free here"... I am mortified, I didn't want to hurt "coffee man's feelings" . so I said,  "it's a lattee.."  He says "I can make them too! This is a 15 hundred dollar machine, it makes everything, I can even do espresso's..."  Suitably chastised I promise him I'll try his latte tomorrow.  I hand over the Chai Latte to Harry who's grinning at me, naughty man.  The Nurses come in and asked him how he slept, he said "I didn't sleep a wink what with Dx snoring away all night" . The CHEEK!  The nurses fall over laughing.

Annie comes in to take me downstairs for lunch, and as we're about to tuck in, I get a call from the Insurance Agents of AIG.  They're sorry to hear about what's happened, can they have some details and can I send it to them.  I look at Annie, I guess I must be a one stop admin centre eh, will have to dig through my e mails now.  We head back up to my room.  The doctor comes in to visit and says "I know you'd like to be discharged today Dx but we'd like to monitor you since there's been a slight increase in the fluids in your lung after the biopsy."  I look at her like I've been sentenced to prison.  "However we can give you a day pass for the weekend, you can go home for the day but you'll have to be back here by 6pm ok?"  OH YES!! (cue : zippie de doo dahhh zippie de day)

The next few days was a small slice of heaven,  I'd get picked up either by Annie or Max and deposited home, get to cook some real food and be back in the ward in the evening.  "all right for some " grumbled Harry,  'well at least you're taking it for the team" he says.   However on one of the last days of my day pass, I get a disturbing call from the AIG insurance agent, this one is not the lady I spoke with.
 He's rude and abrupt and says "your insurance is void". 
I blanched , "I beg your pardon?"
Ya you didn't buy the insurance while you were in Malaysia , so the insurance is void.
 I said " well first of all , it doesn't state anywhere on your website that it has to be purchased from country of origin, and secondly why did you take my money if it was not going to be in effect?"  "You better write in to the company and explain then " he says and rings off.
 This then sets off my anxiety and so I ask the kids to send me back to the hospital early.  I spoke with the doctor and told her what had happened, she told me to engage my solicitor and also would get the social worker on to me.  She reassured me again, not to worry, most important thing is for you to get better, the finances will get sorted out later.
I've got a PET Scan and and echo scan to go through and then I'm done with the tests. 

Rejection... oh the pain

The PET scan is similar to a CT except you are injected with radioactive glucose so the cancer cells are illuminated when you're scanned.  As I'm wheeled in to the room again I have to tell them my name and birth date.  For GOD"S sake, does everyone have to know my age! I tell them.  In the back ground one of the orderlies pipes up, "it's ok, I like older women"!  Cheeky but I'll take it.

The Echo is like a sonar to check my heart (yeah yeah get on with the jokes about a bleedin heart will ya... everyone is a comedian) and it takes about half an hour with a technician who goes over certain spots to catch the readings. Because we're so close to each other I can hear her tummy rumbling, she laughs and apologises, "must have been something I ate, it's just going off isn't it!"... Well better you than me !!  Then I'm wheeled back , another orderly cracking jokes, so much so that we end up on the maternity floor !  I'm looking around and saying "hang on this does not look familiar at all" and the Head Nurse says "having a baby are we ?"  everyone cracks up and the orderly is shown the way back out to the lifts and down to where my ward is.  Phew. adventures abound even in hospitals.

They're going to discharge me, Annie is calling to see what time I'm to be "sprung", I have to speak with the Hematology Team, who are still keeping pretty stumm on my diagnosis.  So I asked the attending Doctor, "seriously though, you say it's suspected lymphoma, can we confirm that it is?"  and this was his cryptic reply,  "sometimes when we see a shadow of a cat , it's a cat, but if you go around the corner it's a dog".... I look at him and hold my self back from strangling him.  He gives me a benign smile, one that says " I know what you're thinking but you can't do anything about it!"  HAH!  Anyway, the tests will take longer, some of them are in Brisbane, so I'm to go home and the week after I'll be called in to the Adem Crosby Centre to meet with my oncologist to discuss the results and treatment moving forward.  Right e o, Feeedoommm , Freeedoooommm, Freeedooommm (George Michael sing it bebeh)

Whilst I'm home I have to update all my family on what's going on so far, yes everyone is frustrated because there has been no definitive diagnosis, but this is the calm before the storm.  I go back on my daily walks, I start the budwig protocol and do as much research as I can regarding lymphoma, diet and lifestyle excluding the "woo woo" theories out there.  I'd love to try alternative therapies as opposed to chemo, but a lot of them are integrative and can be done here.  Ok, we're getting some where. 

I get my organic flaxseed oil from stoneycreekoil.com.au

Annie and I have a quiet drink together, she say's "I miss my drinking buddy!"  lol, yea no more martinis for now until we figure out what the hey ho is going on.  Annie's already taken me to the Cancer Support group in our area.  She says " Daph, we need to set up a "go fund me" account to help you out." "if the insurance folk and not coming into play how are we going to sort your finances out, you can't work, your daughter is stressed out as it is with her job and your son is still in school".  I look at her " Not charity Annie, I don't want charity, can we just wait and see how this pans out.?"  Eventually she gets back to me and says she's going to pledge to cut her hair to raise money for me.  My eyes pop, "are you kidding me?!! all that long blond hair??!!"  "I do it for you my friend, I want to pay for your rent and if this helps than I' m doing it"   I of course start to blub like the big girls blouse that I am, who else would do this for me  who else? : Down-the-rabbit-hole-with-Daphne

Goldilocks!

To date : Annie's launched "down-the-rabbit-hole-with-Daphne  Go Fundme, a few days ago on my FB timeline, she's organising a radio interview with the local radio station here and is hoping to build more traction with some of the other cancer charities.   I'm leaving you with the link https://www.gofundme.com/down-the-rabbit-hole-with-Daphne as I promised her I would write about it in this blog, we were going to cut our hair together but I've had to cut mine off as it started falling out in clumps so hopefully we'll be able to do a real "event" out of Annie's hair cutting ceremony.
If anything to auction off your hair for cancer is a HUGE deal.  Thank you my dearest friend. X
In the mean time my lovely friend and lawyer  Daljit is hounding the AIG insurers, apart from an official letter to state they won't be honouring the insurance, they've been rather quiet and not responding to either the Hospital Admin or my lawyer. 

It's a lotus flower 

This blog is not current to timelines, it's a way for me to express what I went through leading up to what's happening in real time.  But that's a story for another day...