Day 1893. This week schools were on break, and for that reason Emmy participated in a soccer camp, because he really wanted to. Tammy didn't want to go to kindergarten by herself, so she stayed home this week. Emmy had to be at the camp location at 8:15 every morning, which is pretty early. Yesterday morning, Randy left with both Tammy and Emmy a little late to take him there. A few minutes later I left with Sammy to take him to kindergarten, which he was very happy about. Then I returned home. I lay down briefly, but the cleaning lady arrived at 9 am. After I had let her in, I lay back down as I really needed to get some sleep.
After Randy had dropped off Emmy, he continued on downtown with Tammy, then took a tram to take her to the pediatrician. For the last few days she had cried every night because of the pain in her chest, so we decided to take advantage of her being home and have it looked at. The doctor actually did an ECG, then he gave her a cream to put on her chest, to treat muscle pain. Let's hope it helps.
By about 11 am they were back home. I then soon went to the kitchen to make lunch. At noon Randy left to go pick up Sammy from kindergarten. Tammy and I ate before they were back, then Randy ate as well. Sammy had already eaten in kindergarten.
I had to prepare for my 2:30 pm student, as well as do piano practice with Tammy. After I was done teaching, Randy was getting ready to leave the house. Sammy wanted to go with Daddy again to pick up Emmy, but ended up staying home with me and his sister. At about 5 pm they were home. I had already prepared their food, so they could all sit down to eat.
I then taught from 5:20 until 6:10 pm, then I had to leave the house right away. I had felt all week I needed to be at the mid-week service that I had never been to, and Randy encouraged me to go, even though it meant he had to put the kids to bed by himself. And so I left the house right after I was done teaching.
I took the train and then the tram, then had to walk a bit. It was quite the distance to get there. I got there just before it started at 7 pm, and the pastors were surprised to see me. Most everyone else I did not know. I found a good seat with easy access to the bathroom (since the cyst is pushing on the bladder). Just after 7 pm they started worshipping, and that's all that the following two hours were.
And they were glorious. God's presence was strong and touched me. It was wonderful. But by 8:45 pm I was done. I was tired and just wanted to get home. I didn't feel like doing all that walking and was considering an Uber, but ended up walking. Just before 9 pm I left, before the meeting had ended.
I made the long walk again to get to the tram, then took the tram to the main train station, where the train was already sitting there and left right after I'd gotten on. That way I was back home just after 9:30 pm, which was great.
I got myself something to eat, then did some work, and somehow it was 12:45 am, before I was in bed, even though I had an early morning this morning.
I had set my alarm for 6:15 this morning. Sammy was already up before that, and the other two soon woke up after I got up. I ended up helping with them, even though I was just trying to get out of the house by 6:30 am. Just after that time I actually left. Randy then had to take all three with him to take Emmy to his soccer camp, and after Emmy was off, the other two got to enjoy the playground right there for a while before Randy took them home.
I took the subway downtown, and then the tram. Both were a lot emptier than usual; I thought there'd be more people that time of day. And I ended up getting to the hospital quicker than usual as well. Just after 7 am I was there. After a bathroom stop, I already saw my friend Renate who was once again so kind to accompany me, just as she had done on Tuesday. I was so very thankful for that.
Together we walked up to to 8F, where I had a CT scan of my whole torso scheduled, so they could see whether there was any spread in case it was malignant. I filled out a paper, while we were sitting in the waiting room, waiting for me to be called up. And it didn't take long; the CT was scheduled for 7:30 am. A very nice male nurse welcomed me and told me to completely undress my upper body. I then lay down on the bed that was gonna go inside the tube. He put an IV access into my left arm so they could insert the contrasting fluid. He was not just nice but also funny, which was refreshing. I had to put my arms over my head, then he left the room. After a few minutes, they pushed the fluid into my arm, and once again my whole body got really hot from it going through my blood. Then my body went into the tube, and then it was already all over. He told me to go to the waiting room, and he'd then come there to take the needle out of my arm.
We were sitting in the waiting room waiting for him, but I had another test scheduled at 7:45, and it was already past that. So we talked about simply leaving and letting them take the needle out at the other station. One of the staff overheard me and made sure I was called in right away. The nurse then took the needle out, and we were off to 8D.
8D was the urology department. Since the cyst is pushing on my bladder, making me run to the bathroom all the time and probably also causing the urinary tract infection, they wanted to check whether my bladder was in any way negatively affected by the cyst. For that reason I had to have a cystoscopy, which is an endoscopy of the bladder. I was not looking forward to it, even though it was going to be my first.
We registered and sat down and were surprised by the huge amount of people already in the waiting room. It wasn't even 8 am yet! I then enjoyed talking with my friend, even though I could hardly keep my eyes open because I was so tired. I had only slept just over 5 hours, and those had been interrupted with kids coming and going. As we were talking, time was going by. I had thought we'd be out of there quickly, but that was not going to happen. We had sat there for over an hour, when my name was finally called.
A nice nurse asked me why I needed the cystoscopy, and I told her. She then said she had to organize a doctor and left. After a few minutes she returned and led us into a room. There was first a changing room with a toilet, and then the treatment room. There was one chair that my friend could sit on. I had to give them a urine sample and get undressed. Then I went into the treatment room. I sat down on a obgyn-kind of chair, and the nurse started prepping me for the procedure. When I saw the thick, long metal rod they were going to put inside my urinary tract, it was scary. However, the nurse was really nice. She told me she was going to put some numbing gel on me so that I'd feel it less. She was also really funny.
I had been on the chair ready to go for a couple of minutes, when the doctor arrived. He then put the metal rod inside of me, and it hurt. There were bangs of pain, like being stung, and I whimpered. The whole thing took way too long. There was a camera on the tip of the rod, and they poured salt water into my bladder to clean it out. Then the doctor told the nurse to call the head doctor to come. When he showed up, he asked me whether I'd had a urinary tract infection, and I told him I'd just had one. He could see the effects of that in my bladder. Other than that everything was fine; the cyst had not negatively affected my bladder.
I was so glad, when he finally put that rod out of me. Terrible! They wanted me to come back in a month, but hey, at that time I might already be in the hospital for the operation. I'm not coming back.
I got dressed, and we left. Thank God! I had to say good-bye to my faithful friend who has a gift of service and comforting. Then I headed for the tram to go home. It was 9:30 am. By 10:15 am I was back home.
And I was very tired and wanted to get some sleep. Randy was already downstairs with Tammy and Sammy. Sammy was not in kindergarten today because of the Halloween celebrations. The kids were happy to see me, but I needed to get some sleep so I could function and teach in the afternoon. I was able to sleep for a while and woke up because of the noise.
It was Emmy's last day at the soccer camp, and because of that, he had a soccer tournament at 1 pm, followed by an award ceremony. The parents were invited to attend, and Randy was going to take Tammy and Sammy there with him, which allowed me to teach. So they warmed up yesterday's leftovers early and left the house at noon.
I then ate as well and taught from 1 to 3 pm, and then from 4 to 5 pm. Randy and the kids returned home before I was done teaching. After I was done, Emmy showed me his certificate and silver medal. They had come second. Then I asked the kids to go downstairs with me for piano practice, and they did. Emmy went first, then Tammy, then we returned upstairs. It was time to get them some food. After having eaten, they went into the bathtub, then we got them ready for bed. I put Sammy to bed, then I read a story to the other two. It was obvious that Emmy was really tired, as he breaks into tears easily or rather is upset easily, when he is. But we overcame it, and they were in bed quite a bit before 8 pm. I then made myself some soup, then started working on the pictures and my report. Now it's nearly midnight, and I still have to take care of the kitchen.
