Contemplating crabgrass plus Cancer Club updates

That's me and my shadow capturing crabgrass before it runs amok in the garden. Rodale lists it as number one

on the list of worst garden weeds. 

I spent a couple hours this afternoon wrenching young crabgrass from the garden. I do this every year; dig clumps with a potato fork then comb through, seeking white tendrils snaking through the soil. I shake dirt back into the garden, dump the tendrils and grass into a bucket, and toss it into the orchard, far from the garden.  Over the years, the crabgrass invasions have become fewer and less dense. I'm making headway.

Combing the clumps with my  gloved hands to get every last tendril is daydreamy repetitive work, however, and the mind wanders. Mine wandered in the wrong direction, perhaps because I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow, everyone's favorite cancer prevention procedure, right?

And that set me thinking, yet again, about the melanoma terrors I endured for 30 days from late December 2015 to late January 2016.

I thought about how the itty bitty pink mole required a five-inch incision plus a couple smaller cuts to remove lymph nodes for biopsies. About how PK and I put our lives on hold awaiting the surgery and biopsy results. About how agonizing it all was. And now, how our lives can go on almost as if it didn't happen.

Even a tiny piece of crabgrass root can regenerate. I couldn't help but think of crabgrass today as garden cancer. I'm using the surgical approach to cure. We tried "chemotherapy" on it years ago to no avail. I learned tonight that "prevention" chemicals are now being sold to keep it in check. I'll stick with the manual labor and avoid applying chemicals.

After the melanoma terrors subsided, I scheduled a mammography, (Benign results were back in a couple days! Thanks, Asante.) a dental appointment, and tomorrow's colonoscopy. I hate the colonoscopy prep, which I am enduring as I write. The procedure itself isn't problematic, veiled, as it is, by unconsciousness. And when I wake up, I can eat!

I've had two previous colonoscopies. The first was about 10 years ago after my primary care provider talked me into it, and I am grateful that he did. A precancerous polyp was biopsied. If I hadn't agreed to the procedure, the polyp would have eventually developed into full-blown colon cancer, which is infamous for being asymptomatic until it is advanced.

Another was performed three years later with good results. Tomorrow, who knows? But if something evil lurks, it will be caught early.  And la-de-da.

Crabgrass was useful in leading me to put things in perspective and also do some follow-ups.......

Updates in case previous posts left you wondering:

A post about the agony of awaiting medical test results generated a noisy response from readers, mostly via Facebook comments. It is clear that my experience was not unique, and that tolerance for delayed test results is low.

Here's an excerpt from that post:

....I'm approaching two weeks out from surgery where lymph nodes were biopsied, for God's sake. Isn't two weeks too long to wait to learn whether you'll hop back into your merry little ordinary life, or if you'll spend the next year or two in and out of treatment and, undoubtedly, a lot more long days and nights in the Limbo Lounge having your brain devoured by fear monsters? ....Do all poor suckers who get punched by cancer also have to suffer inattention from medical people? 

An earlier post explains about the melanoma and my induction into the Cancer Club.

In a later post, I pledged to inquire with my medical providers, at least, why timely results were not delivered and why my requests were ignored. Post excerpt follows:

But still. I think all medical care providers need to respect that patients are often anxious to the max, to the point of nausea, to blowing up the blood pressure gauge, especially regarding cancer test results and staging. Sharing test results in a timely manner should be a top priority in medical offices. Not necessarily for routine test results, but certainly those upon which a patient's life may turn.
Medical office managers might consider providing a form to patients listing options about how they prefer to learn critical test results, and then making sure somebody has responsibility for contacting patients as a part of their job. I know it's complicated. Doctors don't have time; office staff lacks credentials to answer medical questions etc. etc. But there must be a solution.

When I saw my surgeon on a Monday, 10 days after surgery, he was pleased to tell me I was fine. I was pleased to tell him I already knew because a physician friend who read my blog offered to show me the online results on a Friday morning, sparing PK and me a miserable weekend of waiting. The results had been available to medical offices since Wednesday! Three days they could have called me!

The surgeon was great. Very apologetic. He said that contacting patients with negative (good) results can be done by an assistant, but that patients whose results are positive for disease either must wait until their post-op appointment with him, or he calls them personally. He had no idea that I'd called his office three times and stopped by in person once.

I asked to speak with the surgery practice's office manager. I gave her a copy of the Beautifully Benign post (link below.)  I told her that results from my surgery/biopsies had been available for three days, not including the weekend, and that at least one of the three people in her office that I'd spoken with could have called me. She was receptive and promised to have an office training to reinforce already established rules about tracking patient contacts (one of my calls was not listed). She seemed to be in complete agreement that the surgery practice could do a lot better in sharing patients' test results in a timely fashion. I hope she followed through.

As for the dermatology office that took 19 days to deliver my bad diagnosis, I waited until my 3-month appointment to talk with my doc in person. By requesting paperwork ahead of time, I knew for sure that he could have called me five office days before he actually did.

He explained that my diagnosis was difficult, and after a group of dermatologists reviewed the slides and agreed with the first diagnosis, it was sent to an outside lab for a second opinion, which required more time. That opinion was "invasive" melanoma rather than "metastatic." Super bad either way.

The dermatologist didn't provide a reason why for not contacting me during one of those five days, but I cut him some slack because it was during the holiday season.

Another spot was biopsied at my three-month visit in early March - I'll be seeing the dermatologist every three months for an undetermined time. The benign results were speedy, delivered by phone and mail within a week.

Maybe my frank talk made a difference? I can only hope.

Earlier Cancer Club Posts

Welcome to the Cancer Club - learning the terrible truth

It was a beautiful day in the Cancer Club's Limbo Lounge - making the best of waiting

Beautifully Benign! But how about more timely results?  Get with the program, medical offices.
Back from Cancer's Brink - lessons learned