Blow - Pheeew!

Today was a long day in hospital. The pulmonary function test was at 8:30 am and I drove Amma and Tripti & Anne into hospital. Tripti & Anne settled in the Lib and I found my way to the PFT lab a little ahead of time. The technicians were still at prayers and so I settled down in the reception watching a replay of some recent India Vs. somebody cricket match. Not very interested in cricket as you can make out – can’t understand what all the fuss is about! The waiting room of any procedure is a tension filled place with its own dynamics. Patients are all so worried and everyone has their agenda and want to be seen first. There was a wheezy old man being supported by two even more elderly, thin relatives, a fat Bengali man whose appointment was for 9:30 am, but angry that the 8:30 am people had not gone in, and so on. The test itself took about 45 min, and I knew I had done fairly well, compared to the last time I was there – because the chest tube and chest incision hurt last time and impaired my breathing. By Gods grace I’ve been give a clean lung chit and can go ahead with my next Bleomycin.
My thesis patient was waiting for me at the anal manometry room. He was visibly distraught to hear of my diagnosis – we had become well acquainted when he came 3 months earlier for his fistula surgery, he had been operated 3 times in Bengal and had a recurrence after a few months each time. He holds my boss Dr. Benjamin at a God like status for curing him. On the e-mail with Pastor Carlos ( A Pastor's Cancer blog), we were commenting on the cultural differences of doctor patient dynamics - thats a common Indian thing that we mentally push our healers to God like status. Anne performed the test for me, and after that we gave my blood work into the labs to make sure my counts are all right for tomorrows Chemo.

Anne takes my blood every time for these tests – I wish everyone had such a great phlebotomist (it takes half the dread out of the poke when the person knows what they are doing and does it well!). The picure here is her doing my chest dressing before Chemo with Appa watching! I wanted to look lovingly at her dressing me but ended up looking constipated!
The Cochrane colorectal group have accepted my topic. Hurray! My research is on its way – I may have a paper published at the end of my break to show for all my scars!