On April 07th, 2007 my wife went to the emergency room complaining of a pain in her right side. It had been there all week and she'd been scheduled for a CT scan that morning. Unfortunately she'd forgotten to drink the Berium and hence went to the emergency room in the hopes that they could expedite the diagnosis.
The Emergency Room
During the course of that Saturday she underwent a series of blood tests and scans including a CT scan and an MRI. The results indicated numerous large lesions in her right liver and left lobe. By 9pm I was on the way to the hospital. "Under Pressure" was playing on the radio. Whilst I was driving to the hospital my wife was told by the doctor on call (Dr. Michael Gould of Somerset Medical Center) that she had colon cancer which they believed had spread to her liver.
He should not have done that without a biopsy. No one can tell you you have cancer without a biopsy.
Monday saw a series of phone calls and triage. We scheduled an appointment with a GI doctor (Dr Marvin Lipsky) on Wednesday the 11th of April 2007. That appointment came and went. He was thorough, spoke very fast with little elocution. The diagnosis was that she did not have a blockage in her colon and that they would do a liver biopsy to determine whether the liver lesions are benign or malignant indicating cancer. The earliest we could schedule the biopsy for was the following Tuesday (17th). Karen's sister was getting married the following Saturday (21st) in Dallas and Karen would not be cleared to fly after the procedure. This was a difficult decision but the need to diagnose the problem outweighed the wedding and on Thursday the 12th we decided to cancel the trip to Dallas. That week I worked Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
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