It was odd being the one in the chair meant for family members – rather than being the one in the hospital bed. Looking at my mother, I could vividly recall the feeling of warm blankets being stacked on my cold body as I awoke after my various procedures. The smells in the hospital also brought back memories. Memories of the many times that I have been the patient over the last four years. But this time, it isn’t me that is getting the biopsy. It isn’t me that is dealing with a new diagnosis of cancer – it is my mother.

Similar to my diagnosis, this came out of the blue. We did not expect it. And even when things were looking like it might be cancer, it certainly wasn’t kidney cancer. From what I’ve read, most kidney cancer is diagnosed as an incidental finding on an abdominal scan that is done for some other reason.

Mom’s biopsy didn’t quite go as planned. We arrived to find out that it was booked as ultrasound-guided – we were originally told it was to be CT guided. The first problem was that when mom went back, her blood pressure was too low. I have no idea what they did for it. But it caused a delay. Then when they tried with the ultra sound, they couldn’t get good images of the tumor, so they put her in line to do the biopsy via CT. Fortunately, this did not require rebooking. It delayed things by another 90 minutes, but she was able to get the biopsy done which was really important. After the biopsy she had to wait on bed rest for 3 hours before she could come home. It meant for a long day – starting at 10:30 and not ending until 5pm. It was a good thing we didn’t have anything else planned for the day.

Now we wait – we will see the oncologist for the first time on Monday, but we won’t have any new results that soon. I don’t know when the results will be in, but sometime within a week. Treatment cannot start until we know exactly what we are dealing with. For now, I’m happy that mom’s pain is mostly under control and she is doing a lot better. The pain meds have a benefit of having helped her appetite return, which in turn is helping with her energy levels.