Sometimes I wonder just how far we've come since the ancient "Medicine Man" for our cures. After all the Indians did chew tree bark for pain relief long before we started refining aspirin from the same stuff.
If he took samples of your hair for some voodoo concoction, and blew pipe smoke into your face for it's application, how far have we come? Some doctors blow a lot of smoke when they are not sure what they are dealing with. They take samples from your body (like Barbara's biopsy sample) and send it off to the lab to do what? Grow a culture? Combine with other ingredients for some concoction? Just because they look at it under a microscope doesn't mean we have made that much progress.
In Barbara's case they lost the sample! I've heard of samples being "inconclusive" and therefore the test must be repeated, but "lost it"? The old Medicine Man didn't lose anything. At least the patient would never guess if he had. Our friend, Judith Toebe, said that when they come back with a report on this new biopsy, Barbara ought to say, "Are you sure it's mine?" Fair question, under the circumstances.
At any rate Barbara did submit to the second attempt at a biopsy yesterday. And yes, it was painful ("Your veins keep collapsing!"). And yes, it did take another day out of her life (from 8 until 3 at least). And, by the way, this doctor did hedge his bet by saying, "You know I had this same procedure and it was inconclusive at first try." We are waiting for the medicine man. He said the results could be here as early as Friday, but most likely we will have to wait until Monday. Not to hear the dreaded "I" word, I trust. Even if it is the dreaded "M" word, at least we might begin to fight this invasive life threatener.
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