Page 63 - The Freckled Eye - Book

Chapter 10 Radiation

TH
OCTOBER 13

I drove back to San Ramon to stay with my mom and brother's family. Mom
would take me to my appointment tomorrow.

th
OCTOBER 14 - Follow Up Appointment with Dr. Phan

It was time for the follow up appointment with Dr. Phan. I felt good and was
positive about the progress. I also thought, even if something still wasn’t right,
we could do the Heat Laser treatment again. Mom and I drove to San
Francisco for the follow up appointment. I felt good and I was good.

We were in the waiting room, my spirits were high. I could feel my nerves
setting in... I was nervous. Finally my name was called. Here we go, I
thought. Mom stayed in the waiting room as she had done before. The
nurse took me into the x-ray room. The x-ray tech and I had bonded on my
last visit with her about her extremely huge cat. I think the breed was called a
teddy bear cat, which was a perfect name, because thats exactly what the cat
looked like.

Once in the room the tech and I chatted again, catching up on her and her
cat. She ran some images for Dr. Phan and once we were finished, she took me
to Dr. Phan's room to wait for her.

Doctor Phan entered the room, and then another male doctor followed in
behind her. I was a bit caught off guard by his presense, which made me
more nervous. Why was there another doctor? I know Kaiser is a training
hospital, but for some reason, I didn’t think that's why he was there.

Both doctors sat down, Dr. Phan closest to me. She began to speak and I
started to notice the same face and head shaking she had done before. She
said, “Teri, I’m sorry. The Heat Laser treatment was unsuccessful. " My heart
fell to my stomach. "I asked what do you mean?" She said the laser did get
the top portion of the tumor, but the back side of the tumor showed signs that
it had grown. Dr. Phan pulled up the x-rays images to show me. My heart was
beating faster, time seemed to be standing still. She pointed to the back lining
of the mole on one of the images, to compare to the earlier x-ray from my last
visit. It was ever so slight, but I too could see the change. The laser hadn’t
gotten it all. I quickly thought, ok… will just do another Hot Laser