After making my rounds of calls and sending the necessary texts I just sat still trying to process all the things.
My mom told me she wanted to call Roswell Park Cancer Institute for a second opinion. I honestly thought she was being ridiculous. It wasn’t like the doctors at Roswell were going to tell me I didn’t have cancer.
My next appointment with the oncologist was about a week away and everyone felt like that was a long wait. It felt like a long wait. When appointment day came we talked about chemo options and the benefits of a chemo port.
Then came the bone marrow biopsy. To this day that was the very worst pain, I have EVER felt.
Tori was by my side every step of the way without fail. It would be another week for those results and about 3 weeks before port implant surgery and chemo can start.
My mom was back on calling Roswell for a second opinion, and so was everyone else. The wait was too long and no one was happy about the way the oncologist was handling things.
It was 1 am on a Sunday when I saw the commercial for Roswell. I know it’s super lame right?! The commercial lead me to the website. That’s where I found the schedule an appointment page.
I filled out the forms and sent them in. It was late Sunday night so I wasn’t expecting much until about mid-week.
Monday morning I got a phone call from a woman in the intake office. I permitted them to get all my scans and biopsy results and we scheduled an appointment for just a day or two later.
My sister and I walked into the hospital and I was instantly intimidated.
The place was huge and there were people everywhere. The registration process was simple and painless. Felt like it took a century but that was mostly my anxiety.
I didn’t know it sitting in the waiting room of the lymphoma department but this appointment was going to prove to be the smartest move I had made in a while.
“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”
Samuel Smiles
