It Was Just a Cough

It was just a cough.  Just a small nagging cough.  Allergies most likely.  Some weight was lost.  Just a pound or two a week.  No cause for alarm. That's how it works when you watch what you eat.

Doug had a short stint at work.  Four weeks.  Much better than six weeks.  A week before he was to return came an e-mail.  Could I make him a doctor's appointment?  He still had that bothersome cough.

I can be a good wife.  I called and made an appointment with his doctor.  The doctor was on vacation. A week after Doug got home was not a concern.  The appointment was set.

Then the second e-mail showed up in my inbox.  I'm still losing weight.  It's starting to bug me.

He may have been gone only four weeks, but he was only going to be home three weeks.  Perhaps I should move the appointment up.  I didn't think he would mind seeing my PA.  I made the appointment for two days after his arrival home.  My PA was a female.  I would think all males would appreciate seeing female medical workers.  They have smaller fingers.

Doug came home from his appointment with my PA pleased with her.  She gave him something for indigestion.  An x-ray was also taken of his chest. It's a nice chest.  I could have told them that without an x-ray.  No one asks me anything.

That afternoon came the phone call from the medical office.  There is a spot on your lung.  Be here tomorrow afternoon for a CAT scan.  Doug was baffled.  I was excited.  "Are they going to take hundreds of cats and run them all over your body?"  He didn't even bother to acknowledge that remark.

He trucked out the next morning for the CAT scan.  That afternoon the phone interrupted us.  It was the PA.  "We are setting you up for a PET scan and a biopsy of your lung.  Be here tomorrow for the PET scan."

That's not how we wanted to spend our 27th wedding anniversary.  I suppose I should have just been happy Doug was home.

Napping is a necessary luxury.  The next day while taking our necessary luxury that darn phone rang again.  It was the nurse.  "The PA wants to see you.  Can you come in this afternoon at 4:00?"

It is never good news to be told to arrive as the last appointment on a Friday afternoon.  Doug and I both mumbled some words we do not usually say.

I appreciate my PA.  She is kind and to the point and doesn't beat around the bush.  "Doug we have your PET scan results.  There is a spot on your lung and adrenal gland and two masses on the brain. The cells point to cancer."

Not quite what we wanted to hear.  Two masses on the brain?  Doug has a Charlie Brown head.  How did those cats find two masses?

The next thought was lung cancer?  This guy didn't smoke-ever.  In fact he runs a fifty yard dash from second hand smoke.

The biopsy was set up for the following Tuesday.  Doug was to see an Oncologist the Monday before.

Then she sent us home.  Now we wait...

But it was just a cough.  A small nagging cough.

Pr. 8.34-The man who listens to me will be happy-the man who stays at my door everyday, waiting at the entrance to my home.  GNB