Lucky streak
Well, it had to end. I’m not sure when it did, but I’m pretty sure it was just before I got in the car to head to Pearson.
I was in Toronto to go visit the urologist with my father.
It did start off badly.
I booked a flight for noon and gave myself the morning to read up on prostate cancer, print out the good stuff for my non-computer-using father, do some work urgencies and generally relax. I almost got to the last bit.
Instead I spent most of the morning tearing around the house looking for paper. At first I hoped for a sheath of paper. You know, the kind most people keep beside their printer? Some post-consumer recycled content would have been great.
Instead, I am flipping through files and piles desperately looking for letter-sized pages with one side free, hoping to bring some useful information with me.
I get half a wikipedia article printed when I notice it’s 11:10. Normal travel time to the airport is 20 minutes. Flight closes (I think) 15 minutes before departure.
I call a cab. I look for more paper. None. Plan B: bring the laptop. Hope that I have some good pages still open (I’m a web designer — none of my browsers cache anything ever).
The cab arrives after an interminable delay.
But my luck is waxing, it seems. My flight is late and the kiosk deigns to spit me out a boarding card.
Further positive luck trending: the flight is late departing but the pilot floors it so that we land at the originally scheduled arrival time.
Things are going good. I had rented a car (Pearson and back in a cab costs about the same and I had an extra trip to make) and it’s there. Trend up: I get to my dad’s apartment in good time. Trend down: I forgot to bring any CDs. Trend up: I am able to locate CBC.
We drive over to Toronto West General. Trend down: the doctor is about an hour late.
Trend way down: my dad is 8 out of 10 on the Gleason scale. Nothing to do with 50s TV this scale. The surgeon tells us:
- He’s not a candidate for surgery. The tumour is too big to avoid serious side effects and recurrences.
- The ultrasound therapy (HIFU) isn’t a listed service in Ontario and it costs $23,000 and this doctor didn’t think it would help for the same reasons as surgery wouldn’t help.
- The laser and green light therapies I’d read up on, this doctor says “aren’t for prostate cancer” I am not sure about the veracity of this statement.
- There is some drug that can relax muscles around his urethra which will help with his urination problems.
- Dad is to go for a bone scan and a CT scan to see if the prostate tumour has metastatized.
- Then he’s to see a radio-oncologist to determine what to do next.
- If the tumour’s gone elsewhere, there’s chemotherapy and hormone therapy, but there’s no hope of a “cure”.
The doctor is generally quite dismissive of my questions and difficult. I wish I’d worn Laurie’s I’m blogging this t-shirt, then I would not hesitate to name the man, as it is he thought this was a private meeting. And dad does need his help.
Luck trends down further: the delays and Toronto’s dreadful traffic mean I can’t make my 5:10pm flight. $40 change fee.
And further: I leave my cell phone in my rental car.
Luck trends up slightly: the Avis Rental guy notices my cell phone and doesn’t send the car off to the garage.
Luck trends up more: apparently they close flights half an hour before take off time, not 15 minutes. I didn’t get to the airport on time but the gate agent gives me a boarding card anyway so I don’t have to change my flight again.
Luck trends up slightly more: there’s a plug on the seat in front of me so even though I’ve drained my battery letting dad read through the wikipedia article on prostate cancer while waiting for his appointment, I can write this post.
April 26th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
You can borrow my t-shirt any time.
And I am sorry that the day didn’t bring the best kind of news. Hoping for better for both of you soon. xo