Chapter 13: First Oncologist Visit

 

Whuddup all,

Im going to try my best to keep the momentum going.  Seeing as I know most of you are busy and have lives. I am going to thin out the posts in terms of when they are posted, don't worry the great content will still be there. Going forward, i'll be posting a new entry every Monday evening for you all to enjoy. Thank you all again for reading this blog, that I truly thought no-one would ever read.  Please help the conversation going and pass this on to whoever you may feel will benefit, or just needs a good laugh. 

So I have no idea how they did this, or how I even got this. But the picture above is an exact replica of my uterus! Before and after my hyperplasia diagnosis,  Wow it’s uncanny! They got the smile, rosy cheeks, and stress sweat all the same too!🧐🤣

Well here we are now, having been referred to PMH/PMCC (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre) as I affectionately call it. This is where the ball starts rolling pretty damn quick and a lot of details get pretty blurry. But, I will try my best to recall and share as much as I can. 

Seeing as at this time we were all still fully engulfed in the pandemic life, everyone was limited to where they could go and who they could visit/see. To limit the spread of the COVID virus of corse. Unfortunately, what I didn't seem to realize, this also included medical appointments of any kind. 😖 Imagine going through all of this literally by yourself. I knew at the end of the day, I had really great support system, but even that could only take me so far. I mean as messed up as it sounds, this is probably me looking on the brighter side of things, but I'm actually kinda glad I had to go by myself to all these appointments. It allowed me to be able to process the information myself first. Mind you, I don't really know how much I was actually processing, given most of the time, my brain decided to go on vacation during 99.9% of the appointments. But nevertheless, I was able to have a second to myself to decide what information I was going to regurgitate and to whom. Looking back, I guess its basically everyone seeing as i'm now writing a blog about it.😆 

So I strapped myself in and on the way I went to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Truly not having any idea of what I should actually expect. For those of you who are not familiar with PMCC, it is right in the heart of downtown Toronto, on University ave, a.k.a "hospital row". PMCC is part of the UHN (university health network), and is the Toronto hospital teaching network. In fact it is the largest health research organization in North America. Not to mention it is the first rated organization in Canada for research funding.👏👏👏 The UHN is comprised of the following "big 5": Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret, Toronto Rehab, and the Michener Institute. Feel free to google the last one, seeing as i've never heard of it either, but pretty cool. Honestly though, I couldn't really tell you the last time i've actually been downtown for anything before this.😆 I got my fill in my 20's i'm good.👊

OK. Off to PMCC I went, in the only way I knew how, blasting 90's/00's pop music while having a dance party in my car on the 404. Yeah thats me you hear coming down the highway blasting S club 7, BSB, and Linkin Park (RIP Chester)😎.  I eventually arrived at PMCC, and as I tried my best to look for parking, I figured it best to just bite the bullet and park in the parking garage. So PMCC is right beside, basically connected to Mount Sinai hospital. Around the back of  both hospital's, there are 2 parking structures, side by side as well. Luckily for me I happened to choose the wrong one of corse.😒

I turned onto Murray street from University, and simply went into the first parking garage I saw. Lort knows I was running a bit late, as by some stretch of the imagination, I forgot what Toronto traffic was actually like. Not to mention hitting every one way street known to man while trying to make my way there. Without even thinking, I pulled into this parking garage and looked for a parking spot as quickly as I could. Immediately, as soon as I got out of my car I knew I made the wrong decision. Of corse, it was too late now to turn back and go into the other structure. I opened the door and got hit with a brick wall of skunk smell, but reassured dear friends, we all know that was not a skunk that I was smelling.🙊  At the end of the day it's legal in Ontario so who am I to say anything? i'm just not a huge fan of the smell is all. So I pulled up my big girl panties and went on my way, as quickly as I could of corse.  As Im walking down the ramp to get out of the garage, I cannot help but notice how dark it is....like it was something out of a horror movie. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Jason Voorhies was about to make a surprise appearance.  Mask and all, chasing me down the ramp with a rusty, yet still somehow sharp machete. Can't say i've never been a fan of horror movies, i'm a rom-com girl myself. So the fact I even got myself into this situation...well...🤷 I'm usually much more observant than this, blame it on being late I guess.

As i'm walking down the ramp, I finally spot the "skunk". Some random guy standing in the corner doing his thing, ok cool. But I can't help but feel that any second he was gonna throw on a mask like one of those creepy ass prank videos and chase me out to the street. Yeah I said it so what? Those videos are out there for a reason, mainly because people are sick enough to do it. Yeah exactly, and I may or may not be sick enough to watch them sometimes, only sometimes though. Primarily for research of corse, seriously tho, what would you do if a knife wielding/machete swinging maniac, or even a clown 😨 came at you in a dimly lit parking garage?! let that sink in for a half a second.

So after getting out of the parking garage and saving my OWN life by the way, thanks COVID😒, I  entered the PMCC building. Immediately, I was screened to see if I had any "symptoms" and given a brand new surgical mask. Seeing as the fabric masks, and the Costco one I had on was not up to their impossibly high standards of satisfaction, #haters.😆 All joking aside, given the amount of people in the building who are immune compromised, doing chemo etc, i'm happy to switch my mask. Let's me know they are doing their best to protect me and my cancer filled peers.👍

I then made my way unto the 5th floor to the gynaecology clinic to meet my new doctor. I checked in, got my ID bracelet and had a seat. I then waited, waited, waited, oh and did I? why yes Johnny, I did wait some more. Here I was thinking I was going to be late. Seeing as I ended up waiting well over an hour to get close to what seemed to be the next level, a.k.a actually meeting the doctor, in the exam room of this "effed" up Super Mario Bros. themed bullshit video game that is currently my life.

Finally they called me into see the oncologist, but first they had to take my weight of corse. As someone who has dealt with being very overweight their entire life, for sure this is the first thing I want to do. Thanks guys. If I would have known I probably wouldn't have worn my "trying to look good jeans". Yeah don't lie, we all have those go to jeans we wear, that we think we look hella good in, to make a nice first impression. They tuck-in, and hold up, whatever isn't where its supposed to be. Yeah we all have those, not just you Jenny from the block.  FYI, that is not a Jennifer Lopez reference its just a random name that I though went well in the moment.😏 Not to mention, would have gone to "nervous" pee before, instead of after, which was when they actually allowed me to do so.

So there I was sitting in the exam room waiting. Once again being left alone with my own unhelpful/obsessive thoughts. Thoughts like: "why am I here if I don't have cancer?", "What are they going to tell me now?", "Ugh I feel like ive been waiting FOREVER!", "Did I leave the stove on?",  "Are they going to put me on that exam table and have a peek inside? might as well, everyone has seem my damn cooter at this point. But I don't really want to take off my clothes, too much of a hassle. But of corse i'll do it if they ask me.", "Oh Lort, I just touched the table, I need to wash my hands" (and I got up and did by the way, thank you for having a sink in the room👏👏)

Finally a doctor arrived in the room, couldn't tell you her name even if I wanted to, I don't remember it, she was really nice though. She asked me a bunch of standard questions about my health history, lifestyle, medications, etc. It was nice to actually have a legit conversation for once, without a computer screen being involved in some, way, shape, or form. Before I knew it, she left the room, I guess to report the findings back to her "hive leader", must have been an intern I guess.

She then returned a somewhat short time after with my oncologist. Who, by the way, is really great. The oncologist came in and basically repeated what I just told the student and asked a few additional questions. She then whipped out a piece of paper with a diagram of a giant uterus on it and proceeded to explain what atypical endometrial hyperplasia is. As mentioned in the previous post, endometrial hyperplasia is the uterine wall growing way too quickly. Hence why my periods were way, way, way too heavy. That being said, the doctor then proceeded to tell me my lining was growing SO fast that it was growing abnormally a.k.a atypically. Uhhh ok?😳. This was concerning to them given that the cells are growing so fast, they are basically mutating.👾 That being said, she never said flat out that I had cancer, and i'm sure she was very strategic in that. She did however, say that endometrial hyperplasia is not genetic. It is directly linked to obesity. In fact, if I was over 40 years old, the immediate treatment would be a full hysterectomy, no questions asked. Hmmm. Well silly me, here I was busy being worried about dying of a hear attack, while this sneaky lil bastard came out of nowhere. Well played.

It was at this point she then proceeded to tell me that because of the mutating cells, the hyperplasia can very quickly turn into cancer. She also mentioned because of this, the recommended treatment was to have a hysterectomy, seeing as this will never "go away".🙈  She then asked me how I felt, and what I felt comfortable to proceed with.  I then responded, "well as you know, my husband and I are trying to have a family. I still feel as though I have time to possibly get pregnant, and I don't want to jump the gun right away and have the surgery. I want to know in my heart,  that I tried my best and did everything I could to make this happen. However if it doesn't I know in my heart I really tried."

I could see she was trying her best to respect my wishes to keep trying if possible. She then recommended  to have an IUD inserted into my uterus. What's the science behind that you ask?, well basically, the progesterone hormone that is released from the IUD will help thin the lining of the uterus. This will in turn help maintain the growth of the lining for however long it's in there. "The plan is to keep it in for a few months to help thin the lining. "After about 3-6 months, we are going to do another biopsy of the uterus around the IUD, without taking it out. Then if that biopsy comes out clear then we would send you back to Dr. J, and tell her to get you pregnant ASAP." OOOH! so that's definitely good and something positive to look forward to! I thought to myself. 🙌🙏  However, there was some testing she wanted to do in order to clarify things a bit more. I didn't know it yet but the MRI's / CT's / Ultrasound's / PET scan's were to quickly follow.

This appointment was certainly a whirlwind but I tried my best to get through it. I know although she said at this point it was only hyperplasia cells they found, I couldn't help but think/feel in my gut something else was going on.

To be continued...