OK... I realize there are a few people who follow this blog from some of the far away places where we used to live just to keep up with the Mix family health situation.
(to view ALL health updates PLUS this one, click HERE)
What an update we have today!
Gay is fine.
Michele is fine.
Sarah is fine.
Josh is fine.
I, on the other hand, have several things going on.
Sunday night I did a sleep study. I went to the hospital and they put wires and cables and monitors on me and watched (and listened and recorded) me sleeping. Turns out that I have a pretty severe sleep apnea condition... helps explain the falling asleep accident last month and all of the headaches and yawning and feeling tired that I've had for such a long time. Tonight I go back to be calibrated for settings on a CPAP machine (continuous positive air pressure). That should help a lot I'm told.
A month ago my local urologist called and wanted me to have a biopsy done on my kidney. He was concerned that the Pittsburgh hospital had not repeated the ultrasound that had caused the DuBois hospital to suspect kidney cancer to start with. SO... they did a CT guided needle biopsy on Feb. 7th. Took quite a while to get test results back, because the limited amount of tissue in the needle biopsy wasn't quite enough to be definite about a diagnosis... So they shipped the slides off to Pittsburgh to UPMC for a second opinion. Three different people there came back with three different opinions. One was that the alleged cysts were actually an oncocytoma (a benign tumor). The other two opinions were both kidney cancer. What was certain, though, is that what had appeared to be cysts were solid and you can't just watch them forever.
At this point, the plans started to change... you see, research is now showing that most kidney cancers start as benign tumors... so the recommended treatment for ANY of the possibilities is removal of the mass/tumor/cancer. I went today to Allegheny General Hospital and met with the urology surgeon I met with before and he agreed.
SO... once Easter is over, and I have time to do the pre-op stuff that needs to be done, I'll be having my left kidney removed.
WELL... I have about 5 minutes left before I have to head for the hospital for this followup sleep study. Sometime I'll share what a miracle it has been (or agnostics might say what an amazing set of 5 coincidences all in a row).
gotta go!
About Me
- Dayton D. Mix
- Clarks Mills, Pennsylvania, United States
- I'm a husband, a dad, a son, a grandson, a pastor, & now a grandpa, too! Those are the basic hats I wear in my daily life. I was born & raised in rural Pennsylvania couple of miles from the New York border in a small town, Shinglehouse (Potter County). I struggle with my weight & my own quirks just like everyone else does. I became a United Methodist pastor in 1996 and was ordained in 2003. While I'm officially Methodist, I also consider myself a “charismatic” Christian, as well as an “evangelical”, although not everything identified with either of those labels fits me perfectly. I enjoy genealogy but seldom have time to do much with it. I like playing with eBay. I like to read, watch movies, camp, hike, and talk. I LOVE to write, but usually don't worry too much about formal grammar... instead choosing to write as I probably would speak. And even though I can spell pretty well, I'm a lousy typist, so be gracious. I update my blogs as often as I can, but I have a real life that demands me NOT being at the computer all the time... so there are dry spells!
1 comment:
We have you in our prayers up north here too!!
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