I am a little behind posting this, been on and off sick all week, and when i am feeling well my body wants to sleep so its a good thing/bad thing type of thing..
Well last Sunday (02/05/2012) i was called by my Palliative Care doctor and asked if i would mind doing them a favor, i figured it was a Sunday and she called me something was up.
She asked me if i was willing to come over to the UCI medical school and be a subject for a second year medical student group so they could learn to take Pain History, well since i really do not have anything to do anymore i figured "what the hell" sounds like fun and agreed to do it, next time i will learn to ask questions first.
There were two of us involved, we both had the same idea, we were going to be paired up with a few students, asked a few questions, they could take notes and then send in the next group, were we wrong.
one thing before i go on, one of the things my doctor told me before i started was "be yourself, we know how you are , just be yourself" for the many that know me you are rolling your eyes now wondering why anybody would want me to be myself, that's just down right scary, for those who read this blog once and a while, read some more of my post, you will get the idea, i have a friend that swears the TV show "House" in based on my humor somewhat.
so , here is how it went, I will not tell you how the other person did she did, she was really nervous but she did really well.
So..few students..me..taking notes? oh hell no, picture a medium sized auditorium, about 50 students, and me sitting on the stage with them all staring at me, i do not do well in crowds, never have, i use to throw great party's when i was younger but i never showed up for them, well one i did, Laurie's 21st bday party, but that's a different story.
So there i am sitting on a stage, 50 people looking at me (glad i did not wear shorts that day) and just waiting on the questions, they started asking by asking good questions..like
Where does it hurt..?
what type of pain is it..stabbing?..radiating? .. dull?
then they started to narrow down..
where was my pain?..Head / neck
how long ago did it start?
how was it discovered?
so on and so forth...they were pretty good...for second year students ( my doctor kept telling me that)
so it went on for about 20 minutes, one thing my doctor told me was not to tell them the full diagnose until i was signaled it was OK..
after a while they were close, i got the signal and the next person who asked i laid it out as...
Head/Neck Cancer, i have had chemo, 40 days of radiation, a modified neck resection and i am now "end stag just whiling my days away waiting for the big day"
Talk about a major buzz kill, then they spent about 20 minutes asking what I do, what i would like to do while i am in this stage, it was kind of interesting, they asked me how i eat (not well as i could) see i can only open my mouth 2 fingers ( at this point i thanked the lady who brought in the cheeseburger)
one of the last questions, as a matter of fact i think it was the last question, i was asked
"Do you have anything you would like us to take away in regards to what happened to you"/ i paraphrased that..
I never told them how i ended up in that stage, so i did , i mentioned how my GP missed all the signs, he missed the sores, the lumps, the "melting" of the tissue, he missed me telling him of the foul taste in my mouth (necrotic tissue)..he missed it all and kept diagnosing me with "tonsillitis" feeding me a few antibiotics..and so on..for 7 months...my reply then was as follows...
"don't be quick to fit the complaint into a quick category , i mean it sounds like tonsillitis, OK..it could be..but after the person comes back..just double check and make sure its not something else...really a simple test would have caught this anywhere from stage 1 to late stage 2..but when i was caught , and the first biopsy was done, i was a stage 4a, even before treatment i was pretty hosed..
now..one other question was asked of me earlier, i left to last, i was asked if i was "angry"..i use to get angry at a ton of things, i get less angry now, i replied
"i do not get angry, if i did i would....anyways i hear the medical system in the California jail system is bad"
night all...
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