Pulmonologist

On Tuesday afternoon, I met her at the pulmonologist's office at St. John's in Anderson.  She was going to be seeing Dr. Mares.  My friend Kristina works in the ICU at St. John's and had spoken of him before.  She had said he was very good, very kind, and his patients loved him.  Thanks goodness, that's what we needed.  I once had a patient at St. Vincent who the cardiothoracic surgeon came in to tell her she had lung cancer.  He was very matter of fact and very cold.  She began crying and he just kept talking.  It was awful.

We were not sad, there were no tears.  It was a beautiful day and we were happy to see each other.

She registered at the desk and was given paperwork to fill out.  She handed me the packet of information her doctor had given her with the actual CT scan results and some other information. This was the actual CT scan:

I read it and was shocked.  I said, "It says the mass may be as large as 6 cm Mom. That's huge." She was walking around with a tumor the size of a baseball and a collapsed lung and she looked pretty good! She was beginning to feel better since the antibiotics were kicking in on the pneumonia. 

We sat there awhile.  Kristina had told me we would have to wait awhile, but it would be worth it.  The office looked dated and smelled of cigarette smoke.  Go figure a pulmonologist's waiting room would smell like cigarette smoke.  

She told me yesterday at her doctor's office everyone had hugged her before she left. I said "Did you ask them if they thought you were dying or something?" She laughed.  We Sextons take things in stride and usually make jokes that would be considered off color.  It's how we cope. 

We were finally taken back to the exam room.  We waited a bit longer.  He finally came in and said he knew my friend Kristina.  He said he'd been told he had a very special patient coming in today. He also said he'd seen a lot of pictures of my daughter and she was very cute.  Really Kristina?

He did not beat around the bush.  He said referring to her CT scan, "This, this is cancer." He said there was a slight chance it could be some huge pocket of infection but he highly doubted it.  He then went on to take her history.  I was surprised he was the one to do this, a nurse could've done this.  But he took her whole history.  Let me tell you, Pat Sexton likes to talk.  There are no short and simple answers.  I felt bad that she kept going on and on, I knew she was telling him more than he needed to know.  I wished I could've just answered the questions for her.  I was worried we were taking too much of his time.  However, he patiently listened to all her answers and was pretty good at redirecting her back to the topic at hand. 

He then talked about the treatment.  He said there was no possibility of surgically removing it due to its location being pretty much in the center of her chest.  She would need either chemotherapy or radiation possibly both depending on if it was non small cell lung cancer or small cell lung cancer. She wanted to know if she would be able to continue to work while undergoing treatment.  He said no. She would be too tired and immunocompromised.  I'm not sure if she believed him.  It turns out, I believe, she went to work the day after this appointment and then never went back.  She put on a good show, but she was exhausted.  

He said she needed treatment quickly. First, he needed to do a bronchoscopy to biopsy it to find out exactly what it was. This was Tuesday, he said he could do it Friday.  She paused and thought about it.  I stared at her and finally asked, "What you got a hot date or something Mom?" She said, "Well I'm supposed to work that day!" I said, "Well I think this is a pretty good excuse to call in!" Dr. Mares pointed at me and said, "Looks like she's in charge."  

The nurse came in to finalize all the details. The bronchoscopy was scheduled for 7 AM on Friday at St. John's. I forget what time we were supposed to actually be there but it was pretty early. 

We left and went to eat at Cracker Barrel.  We talked about my pregnancy.  We talked about how last time when I was on maternity leave she had made us some frozen meals to eat.  I joked she better start preparing those now before she started treatment and was too sick to do so.  We laughed. She ate a good meal.  She told me her appetite was so much better when she was with me. She paid for dinner.  Money had been tight for her and I usually paid for things but she insisted.  From that day on, she pretty much paid for everything. We hugged and parted ways, she back to Muncie and me back to Noblesville.