health

I have noticed, in my all to frequent interaction with doctors, that many of them are a perverse lot. This realization dawned on me as one of said profession was sitting in front of me, performing an exam the likes of which I've never felt before, and sincerely hope to never endure again. "Oh yea, you definitely blew this out" he uttered. At once matter of fact, yet also clearly relishing the phrase. A combination of the examination, and rather unwelcome (though not at all unexpected) news left me with a rather pressing need to have a seat; my legs having become somewhat unsteady.

As I write this is is roughly a week and a half since I had my adrenalectomy to remove a tumor. The surgery was mostly a success, in that it accomplished the task of removing my adrenal gland. However, it turns out that there was nothing wrong with it and the tumor was only adjacent to it rather than growing out of it, but a person can live a normal life with only one gland, so it's okay that it's gone. The tumor itself was significantly more complex and slightly larger than appeared on the Contrast CT. It also grew along the vena cava to below the vein that feeds the kidney.

Just a quick post to say that I have surgery tomorrow to remove my adrenal tumor. It isn't a particularly dangerous surgery, and it seems pretty unlikely that the tumor is cancerous. There is a fair chance that it's what's known as a Conn's Tumor, and if so it will explain all of the strange symptoms I've had for some years now, but had been attributing to asthma (and the meds to treat it). I should just be in the hospital overnight, though it sounds like there will be a fair amount of accompanying pain. I'm sure I'm macho enough to handle that no problem.

It is always a little uncomfortable for me when I talk to someone and they say that they read my blog. I'm not too comfortable with people praising my work, though fortunately, that is seldom an issue. Instead it is that all of my worthwhile stories and anecdotes end up either here or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/aristeos). What little wit I can muster I pour into my posts (yes folks, this is the best I can do), so I'm forced to try to come up with some new and interesting topic that I haven't blogged yet.

I really don't like talking about myself too much. Regular readers of this website may well disagree, and its very existence would argue against that statement. But it is more or less true. However, when certain things are going on in your life it can be awfully hard to write, much less think about anything else. That's where I'm at right now.

Last Wednesday, while I was leaned over with my doctor digitally inspecting my prostate, I had a flash of inspiration. Okay, that isn't true. It was more a flash of searing pain, but I assure you I would have been much happier had it been the former. Happier still if the whole situation had been different.