Turbo Cancer: Day 2
June 13, 2022
Endoscopy
On this day, last year, I got up in the morning and went directly to the hospital. During the night, the lump in my mom’s groin had increased in its size, as had the pain associated with it. Something was very unusual about the lump, but the doctors cited more pressing concerns. A pancreatic issue, they said, would be much more of a worry than that of abdominal swelling.
I asked if the groin pain might be related to the pancreas. They told me, emphatically, that those were two separate issues. They contended that discovering the swollen ducts was a coincidence. I asked if the groin pain could be related to my mom’s recent melanoma. They said that her skin cancer had been caught early and had been completely removed. They prescribed Tylenol with Codeine for pain.
My mom was transferred to the lower level for an endoscopy. She was sedated and a doctor ran a small camera down her throat and into her pancreas. With the aid of the camera, he was able to see the pancreatic tissue and collect a sample for a biopsy. Before my mom returned from her test, the doctor was back. He said that he had wonderful news. He had seen grape-like formations of fluid filled cysts in the pancreas, which was the best possible outcome, as fluid-filled cysts were never cancerous. According to the doctor, my mom was healthy. Other than the benign cysts, my mom’s pancreas was clear. There was no cancer whatsoever. While a biopsy would be completed for confirmation, he was confident that she was going to be fine.
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