A couple weeks ago a commenter asked me to give my partner a nickname so I wouldn't have to refer to her by that rather bald, generic term "partner" which can too easily be interpreted as a medical associate rather than a significant other. So I hereby designate her as "Noo" and will refer to her by this moniker from here on out.
Noo and I are leaving for San Francisco today, where she has a consultation with the Melanoma Clinic at the Mount Zion Medical Center on Thursday. There they are going to go over all her path reports, etc. and make recommendations about adjuvant therapies.
Since the melanoma diagnosis, she's recovered well from the wide excision (vacuum dressing, skin graft, now healed 100%) and a recent abscess at the site of the axillary sentinel node biopsy. Things have been going so well, in fact, that melanoma has become a part of our daily lives and hasn't taken up as much preoccupation as you might expect.
However, as we approach this Melanoma Center appointment, the edges of our serenity has begun to fray. I burst out into tears at the hospital a few nights ago (and I wasn't even busy!), and Noo has been babbling away about inconsequential things, the way she does when pent-up anxiety is beginning to boil over. I think we're nervous because after this appointment, who knows what will happen? Dealing with the wide excision and the weeks of wound care was easier because we could see the progression of events ahead of us. Now we're back to the unknown, and dire talk of prognosis and recurrence.
Thank goodness for decorating! I'm still entertaining bids from contractors to re-do our guest bathroom, and after flirting with tobacco brown, cherry red, and baby blue, Noo is back to wanting the master bedroom painted deep green. Myself, I think I'm going to paint an abstract, Art-Deco inspired geometric mural in the guest bathroom, but more about that later.
Ooohhh, on the colors -- love the Benjamin Moore (best paint ever) color Pottery Red with the baby blue / gray hue of... shoot can't find the name. With brown trim - very sharp.
Will say a prayer the visit goes well. Hugs...
Posted by: CountryMidwife | January 21, 2009 at 03:40 PM
Ditto what PK said. Take care.
Posted by: rlbates | January 21, 2009 at 12:12 PM
you both remain in my prayers!
Posted by: Peggikaye | January 21, 2009 at 06:55 AM