Winterim
As far as I know, Dec. 10th, 2022 was the first time any of us had gotten COVID. My brother first contracted it from school, presumably, then gave it to me and our dad a day later. Despite this week of illness, they still wanted him to go in for his routine 8-week MRI scan on Dec. 20th. The scans were deemed clear then, but in retrospect, according to Dr. Peereboom, had already shown the first signs of recurrence. My dad’s covid cough would linger for another few weeks after winterim.
Feb 17th, 2023
Fast-forward to 23W term. We’d planned a family trip to Hawaii for spring break, with air tickets and hotel reservations already purchased, knowing in the back of our mind the real reason for this vacation. However, my mom called me this Friday afternoon with the room dimly lit, talking quietly. I knew it wasn’t going to be good news.
As part of the clinical trial, my dad receives an MRI and shot of the immunotherapy treatment every 8 weeks. The last time we scanned was Dec. 21st, 2022. The scans from this week’s MRI on Feb. 15th, 2023 show a 4.5cm diameter mass growing in the original tumor’s place, on the right parietal lobe. The prognosis from this point on is not good, and is, statistically speaking, very, very bad. Ask me personally for more details. Wikipedia article.
Talk about PTSD. It has been exactly 1 year and 1 day since I received that first fateful call from my mom, again, while being busy with classes in another Hanover winter term. All the emotions from then flooded back now, but not immediately. I held off the emotion for a day until the dam broke, finally relenting to the pain and crying to friends who would listen to me over this weekend. This time, however, I don’t have my usual emotional outlet of music to alleviate some of my pain due to my own health problems.
As my mom tries to now juggle emergency hospital visits to try and stop the tumor growth while navigating the oftentimes slow healthcare system with new chemotherapies and clinical trials to consider, I’m powerless to help, with the inefficiencies of translating medical jargon back and forth proving to be unhelpful compared to her own research at home. Along with the 2022 tax returns that Dartmouth is now requesting early due to this significant change in income, we have been thrown right back into the gauntlet that we went through last year, with the added worry of trying to get our money back from the possible cancellation of our vacation plans, pending doctor’s news from this week’s visits.
It’s only the sick irony of the universe that I would get sick again this very week, mirroring the events of the past year almost exactly.
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