Endoscopy and Colonoscopy

Both of these were scheduled for Thursday, December 3rd with Dr. Berkman.

Unfortunately I was in Florida on business so Ed had to deal with the dreaded pre-meds by himself on Wednesday. What was worse was that it made him sick and I was in Tallahassee and couldn't help him at all. To make matters worse, there were severe storms in Florida that delayed our flight. As a result, we missed our connection in Charlotte and ended up having to spend the night in Charlotte. As if things weren't already bad enough with Ed's appointment, here I was trying to get back from Florida so I could be there for him.

Thankfully our flight arrived in Bradley at 9:30 Thursday morning and I was back in Amherst by 10:30--an hour before Ed's appointment!

After the procedure, Dr. Berkman gave us the dreaded news. Even without getting the results of the biopsies he was confident the tumors were cancerous. The tumor in Ed's colon was so large that he could not get past it to check the entire colon. Reviewing the CT scan he would suspect that the cancer had spread to the liver but the oncologist could confirm this for us. He immediately got us an appt with Dr. Bowers in Northampton for the following Wednesday. He was also concerned about the tumor causing blockage and Ed requiring emergency surgery, so he wanted to be sure we moved quickly.

There is was...the dreaded word..."cancer". At some level, we were afraid that was going to be the diagnosis, but we were hoping for some miracle. Our miracle that day, though, came instead in Marty A. Marty is a nurse for the specialized procedure dept at Valley Medical were Dr. Berkman performed the procedure. Although Marty was not Ed's nurse that day, she saw Ed had come in and came to see me in the waiting room and also kept an eye on Ed during the procedure.

Marty is also the wife of someone I work with at ES, so we've known each other for many years. Marty also has always seemed to be there whenever Ed showed up at Valley Medical--his burns, his bruised ribs, etc. She always takes good care of Ed and once again was there for us. She sat with us after Dr. Berkman shared the news and re-reviewed with us what Dr. Berkman shared with us. A cancer survivor herself, she also talked to us about how to move forward and next steps.

Marty is truly an angel on earth and although the news was shocking and we were overwhelmed by it all, it was comforting to know she was available to us if/when we had questions and concerns as we tried to figure this all out.

So we got our endoscopy and colonoscopy. Next step, meeting with Dr. Bowers on 12/9. Is this really happening? Maybe it won't be as bad as we're expecting.