8.26.06, Dr. Hands, Dim Sum, and ADBs

Dr. Hands, Dim Sum and ADBs

Get the health issues out of the way first. Normally today would be about the worst on the post-chemo nausea. I felt all right for most of it however, holding up well until the end of coffee after dim sum when I started to flag. I saw that coming. Pain management is going better today, which leaves the sneakiness of nausea as my primary challenge. Franky Scale 7 to 6. (And the chemo drugs finally arrived!) The first half of the day was well worth it, the second half too is quieting down into copasetic calm. Tuna, mango salsa, a movie, little pleasures now.

•The Return of Dr. Hands: A clarification from the “two noteworthy” point I mentioned about Bone Scan Day has be requested. So in order to please. The Dr. Hands story was simply that when I had my port-o-cath put into my upper right chest, the little port for receiving needles and then a catheter tube that moves up from there over my clavicle and then down into my heart for easy drug delivery — my mainline, my doctor was quite friendly with the his hands on service. Very generous, one might say. Perhaps he wanted to make sure I was as comfortable as possible, or perhaps years of medical experience had perfected his bedside manner as a semi-retired surgeon, or perhaps we had something special, which is what I like to think. The special attention might have been creepy on another day but there had been so much bad news and so much tragedy already in the previous couple of weeks that this incident struck me more as comical. Also, having my mother and 60-year old cousin there to watch, and K was there too, made it all the more surreal. Somebody’s unconscious mind had broken the reality barrier and was running amok in the pre-surgery room. I was just witness. And my mother was witness, too, I guess, although she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. So she said later.

There was a connection between this doctor and our home state of Utah. Small world. So the talk extended from medical to geographical and biographical. All the while I was receiving this extra gift of touch on both pecs and other areas of my neck and chest. Enough to say that it stuck in my mind. So while lying on the bone scan table, my skeleton being slowly read in detail, the technician was making small talk and it turned to his medical alma mater, the University of Utah. “So,” pregnant pause, “do you know Dr. Hands?” And then he waited another second. I wanted to turn my head and see if K was also having this same “What the hell?” moment, but couldn’t. Was he asking me if I wanted more of the special service during my bone scan? Was he with quality control to check and see how my previous procedure was? Who knew?

Turned out to be nothing, with the tech simply making a Utah connection, then telling us how the doctor’s famous for a catheter line he invented call the “Hands Line.” So his intro to that was “Have you heard of the Hands Line?” And so it went. Not as exciting as the first story, just a humorous reminder.

• The original blog items I thought I’d write on were dim sum and ADBs. Dim Sum is a straightforward concept. The ADB, I think, requires some explanation. This morning K and I, the always lovely Ms. T and ever dashing Machine (mostly blog names) went for dim sum in the International District. To Jade Garden. Very tasty food and serious satiation by the time were done with the twenty or so little steamers of food. Chrysanthemum tea, cup after cup, prawns, shrimp, eggplant, lobster, gai lan (Chinese broccoli), and more, more, more. I’m working on gaining wait now. My last doctor visit had me up about half a pound — and I realize that could be just daily variation but as I see it, it’s up. And I’m going to get the rest of that pound and maybe one more.

Showing up late Saturday morning and seeing the place packed, standing room only, people waiting for 45 minutes on the sidewalk out front is a very good indication of how good the food is. So we made the wait, did not try the “cancer” excuse to get up in the line, not yet on that one, and left with stomachs singing. Mine just a bit off key.

• The ADB (Accelerated Death Benefit)
This is not an insurance tool I would like to have to know about, knowledge life would be sweeter without. How often, on the other hand, is knowledge not comforting in life? The ADB conversation I might hold till tomorrow given post-length at this point. It might be obvious what it’s about, but I was planning to go through the psychology of what it’s like to “get certified” as terminal and having an insurance company then give you an early benefit based on this. More later.