Through These Eyes: The courageous struggle to find meaning in a life stressed with cancerIsaacson, Lauren Ann
Science
Through These Eyes: The courageous struggle to find meaning in a life stressed with cancer
Isaacson, Lauren Ann
Cancer -- Patients -- Biography; Isaacson, Lauren Ann, 1961-1986
The second biopsy was also determined normal. After the long day my
knowledge was still limited to the fact that my liver was enlarged and
spotted; it was information, but it did not satisfy. To Dad the normal
tissues found in the biopsies were good news; i.e., if biopsies in two
different areas were clear, I could not be seriously afflicted. To me,
however, the findings punctuated the necessity for more tests and
promised to prolong the unhappy state of emotions which accompanied a
dearth of solid facts. Thus, as I laid on a hospital bed waiting as
instructed for four hours to protect myself from internal bleeding, and
having worried excessively and learned relatively little from the
former expenditure, I could not look upon the day without thinking of
the expression "much ado about nothing."
Relatively little testing was done at Mayo over the weekend, so my dad
and I planned to go home for Halloween and two days of normalcy.
Because of my biopsies, however, the doctor recommended we remain in
the city over night to avoid excessive movement and possible
complications. Homebound Saturday morning we planned to return to
Rochester on Sunday evening, at which time I would be expected to check
into the hospital; Monday's agenda would include surgery. Having
exhausted all the other less radical options, an exploratory operation
was the only manner available to determine the mystery concealed
beneath my flesh.
I was glad to be home. Holidays were made to be spent at home, in my
opinion, and Halloween was no exception. That weekend, though, was
especially important to me. Like my trip to Colorado before the
operation for cancer, coming home was quite possibly my last taste of
the life which I had lately enjoyed; I needed not kid myself that the
operation's results could change my life in such ways that it would
never be the same again. The present was all that was mine, and
nothing was certain but the few hours of autumn sunshine and
jack-o-lanterns which graced the days. Those were the elements which
I embraced with all of my enthusiasm until it came time to leave for
Rochester.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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