Some words from our friend Fred

Fred has started to write a diary of his experiences of the last couple of months. First entry:

It Can’t Happen to Me, Can It?

I had been losing weight, and was getting progressively weaker. After consulting with my doctor in late January, I had a battery of tests, and found myself in the back of an ambulance headed for the hospital. Hospitals scared me, and events seemed to be getting out of control.

I settled into Gloucester’s Addison Gilbert Hospital for blood transfusions and every x-ray and other scan known to man. Addison was a friendly first stop, as many of the staff knew me or I knew them. Without exception, everyone was helpful and nice. I had my fingers crossed that I didn’t have something serious.

Diagnosis: Cancer

By process of elimination, my illness was identified as cancer. The exact location and severity was undetermined. After a week at Addison Gilbert, I was sent by limo (ambulance) to Beverly Hospital. I made a lot of new friends on the second floor, and had bilateral nephrostomy tubes and stents inserted into my back/sides for liver drainage. This, along with medication, spared me from dialysis and chemotherapy.

My blood tests looked better, and my urine color went from rose to yellow, which is healthy. My doctors in urology and radiology were as happy as I was. Now stable, the next step is to get my strength and ability to walk back. I had graduated from critical care hospitals to a rehabilitation facility.

Capped off nephrostomy tube.