[Magdalen] Belated medical update.

[Judy Fleener]

what Marion said.


On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 3:54 PM, Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Onward and upward, Mike!  We're walking with you and looking for the good
> news.
>
> Marion, a pilgrim
>
>
> On 3/11/2016 12:31 PM, M J _Mike_ Logsdon wrote:
>
>> Monday's visit to Doc Kim was eventful.  First, I was right about the PET
>> scan, that it did indeed indicate nothing more than we already knew, which
>> was good.  Second, I was able to show her what had cropped up since I'd
>> last seen her a month ago, namely, the spread of the "tumor-like" (based
>> merely on how they feel to the touch) nodules on my legs and feet all up my
>> legs and to my hips, and mainly on the right side.  I directed her to them,
>> and when she started feeling them, and particularly the largest of them,
>> she got a glimmer in her eye and a smile on her face, and after she'd
>> mumbled some medical gunk back and forth with her research fellow
>> assistant, she looked up at me and said "I'm so glad you came in today!"
>> "Oh?"  "Yes!  I want one of these!"  I said "Get your own!"  A futile
>> conversation in which I tried my best to get it put off a week (which I
>> always do when it comes to needles and miniature razor-sharp cookie
>> cutters, my 7th by now), which ended after she and her staff finally looked
>> at my ride for the day (a dear nurse friend, whom I love dearly) with a
>> "Please do something!" look, and my friend came over, put her arm around my
>> shoulder, laid her head on mine, and said "Michael, it's happening today."
>> And it did.  With me shaking and sweating and holding onto my friend for
>> dear life as the largest chunk of me yet was removed from me.  But you know
>> what?  It was, after the first few seconds, literally nearly pain-free.  I
>> learned later it's because on my feet and shins there was a lot of bone so
>> the lidocaine spread laterally, away from the site.  This time, it was my
>> thigh, lots of nice fat cells, so it stayed put and did its appointed job.
>> Also, the research fellow assistant who did it shot me maybe ten or more
>> times (I was told later) all around the site, such that by the third shot I
>> already wasn't feeling anything.  Such genius.  When it was done I said
>> "Let's do it again!"  I still call it medieval barbering at its best, so
>> the research fellow told me she'd make sure and do the next one herself as
>> well, if needed (and you all know as well as I do that it will be, my luck;
>> that time, it'll be on my torso re the potential lymphoma).
>>
>> After reading the write-up of the procedure online, I can say they're 90%
>> certain that hips down is vasculitis, though still of a perplexing sort
>> (the write-up literally begins with the words "This is a challenging
>> case."), and torso up they're apparently not at all certain about
>> lymphoma.  They've got me on a topical steroid right now to see if the rash
>> responds positively to it, and if so they'll steer away from lymphoma.  If
>> not, back to the drawing, and cutting, board.
>>
>> The good news is that my shin and feet wounds are healing, slowly, and
>> more shin than feet.  Which means less pain, though still constant
>> discomfort and daily "redressing of my grievances", ala Brud.
>>
>>
>
>


-- 
Judy Fleener, ObJN
Western Michigan