5th Post. Super friends to the rescue!

My friend Caren (born and raised New Yorker, who happens to be Jewish) and has a brother who is a doctor…which makes her as close to a doctor as any MD I know…calls me after my MRI (she knows everything and everywhere I am at all times.  She is my lifeline in Seattle).  We even moved to Seattle with our families the very same day from NYC.

She called and said “how did it go?”.  I said oh it was fine…she said I am all good…that I probably have a brain bruise and we are going to do another MRI in three months to check it out again”.

Well, this was NOT acceptable to Caren.  Immediately she proclaimed “if a doctor said this about one of your kids, or your husband…you would march right in there, get a copy of the MRI and send it to another Radiologist you trust…to find out NOW what it was”.

For three days she hounded me “did you go pick up a copy of your MRI?”…No, I would say, I am too busy…lots of stuff going on with the kids etc….

That is when she threatened me.  She was going to drive over to my house, force me into her car, drive me to the hospital where I had my MRI and get copies.  I finally abdicated as she is pretty much always right, and drove myself.  She then texted me and said “oh by the way, get two copies”.

I did as I was told.  No one challenges Caren and I wasn’t about to find out what happens to someone when you do.

Enter radiologist for second opinion that you would literally trust with your life.  Kristin.  To say she is a special person is the understatement of my life.  She is so kind, she is so ridiculously smart and talented and she is so generous with her time.  She has so much compassion that people are always drawn to her.  She is modest beyond words.  And she is drop dead gorgeous!!  If I was half as talented and accomplished as Kristin I might wear a sash like they do in the Miss USA Pageant that said “Yes, I am a bad ass”.  And I would wear it all the time.

On March 14, it was a Wednesday, I called Kristin and said “would you mind having someone take a look at my MRI?”  Of course she said yes.  Her husband too is a highly accomplished plastic surgeon and they are sort of like country doctors… despite having stressful full time jobs they are the ones to call when you kid needs a few stitches and you don’t want to wait four hours in the ER, or if you need a scan to be relooked at!  And they will come to you!  They are incredible!   They live a few houses from us…so late Wednesday night I walk down to their house – after they have both had very long days at work…and hand my MRI to Kristin.

The next day at approximately 12noon on March 15, Thursday, I get a text from Kristin saying “hey do you have five minutes to talk?”.  I responded “Just pulled into the grocery store parking lot..am available right now if you are?”

My phone rang 30 seconds later.  Like Caren, I consider Kristin one of my very closest friends.  I am lucky when I get to see her.  She said “well, I am not going to beat around the bush and as long as you are parked in your car and not driving,  I am just going to say it because there is no other way to do this…you have a brain tumor”.

Wow.  You don’t hear that one every day.

Somehow, someway, I was calm.  She immediately told me the size and the location.  Then she said I needed to get with a neurosurgeon…as soon as possible.

Hmmm….I don’t know any neurosurgeons and I wanted to make sure I had someone who was the best…its my brain after all.

I said to Kristin – any thoughts on who I should call?  She had two recommendations.  One was in a hospital network not covered by my insurance.  The second recommendation blessedly, was in my network.   A little miracle.  A huge break.  Now how was I going to get in for an appointment.

Enter Christy…Christy is a force.  I am talking Category 5 Hurricane force.  She is one of the most accomplished women I know.  I only wish I could give you her background and full name…you could spend hours reading about her.  On top of this, she is an awesome dancer and hilarious.

Kristin, Radiologist, said “call Christy…her sister worked with the doctor I am recommending”.  Kristin then sent me the image of the cotton ball on my brain.

Texts start flying from Christy to her equally accomplished younger sister who is a Neurosurgeon.  Asks if the surgeon being recommended is the right one.  A woman who is extremely busy and a woman of few words writes back “he is the guy..and it needs to be resected.  ASAP”.

Well I am on this text string with Kristin, Christy and Christy’s sister.  They start talking about whether the tumor is in the grey matter, the white matter etc….its hard to tell as it is a copy of an MRI image being texted around on an iPhone. iPhones are great…but not appropriate for diagnosis.

As luck would have it (again, I can not reinforce enough just how lucky I am), Kristin hired the surgeons wife a year earlier (she is a fellow radiologist) when he took the job at U of W.  Within 20 minutes of this news of a brain tumor…I was scheduled to meet with this uber surgeon on Monday, March 19 at 1pm.  I hadn’t made one phone call…I sat in the supermarket parking lot and surrendered to two of the most competent people I know…who happened to be two of my closest nearest and dearest friends.

Now I have to call Will.  He’s my husband.