In which Bill has a rough session with Dr. Wong though more becomes clear. And where Bill ends up with more than a simple Biopsy!
Who Was I
By: Annette MacGregor
"Would you like to go back to your class and describe how it ended?"

"NO"

"Why is that?"

"It was horrible!"

---

Part 27   Monday morning (27-Nov-06)

"I'm glad you can make it again Becky."

"I am too. I was thinking that a memory from early in your forth grade year might be useful."

"Why is that different from any others?"

"Well, remember that the teacher seemed to decide to cancel your class early in the year. Maybe one of the early classes would help identify why he chose to stop with you three."

"That's a good idea Becky. We also need to tell Dr. Wong that Karen seems to also have a memory block."

"Of course Bill. I believe that since she also has forgotten the class, that's almost as good as a confirmation that it happened. If Stacy's in the same boat then I'd say three for three makes it positive."

"But, Becky, that could mean my dressing like a girl is real too."

"Bill, we know that from your Aunt Rachel!"

"Oh yea. I guess the thought is still a bit disturbing to me."

"I suspect most people would be disturbed to suddenly discover that they had lived as the opposite sex, for most of a summer. Though, the number of people that are affected by this is actually larger than I had first though. I did some checking and the condition is not new either. Don't you worry about THAT now! Let's take one thing at a time."

"I'll try Becky. Let's start by telling her what Karen had to say."

"Okay Bill, I'll tell her."

"Hello Mr. & Mrs. Wyman. How are you doing today?"

"Okay, all things considered." At her expression, I continued. "Becky talked to one of my school buddies Wednesday evening."

"Yes Dr. Wong. I talked with Karen. While she was surprised and a bit resistant that she might have forgotten someone as close in her class as her Salutatorian, a peek at the year book convinced her. She's also forgotten the class the three were in. She assured me that there wasn't such a class. At my insistence, and showing her the pictures, she called her dad, and he confirmed it for her. She's a bit worried now. She's interested in meeting Bill, but I didn't want to arrange that until I saw the other girl, Stacy. One thing I didn't tell her about was the scar tissue Bill has."

"Speaking of which, I've got my appointment for the biopsy Wednesday morning."

"That's good. I'd really like to see those results. Have you thought about today? I see two choices. One is trying to identify the point where the block exists, and the other is a different point in time - say earlier in the same school year, but after your summer with your friends. I'd suggest the later though."

"We were thinking the later as well Dr. Wong. But, why don't you want to look for the block point?"

"Because I don't have enough information as yet to be sure we aren’t introducing problems as well. While we've not confirmed the needle event, it is suspicious and disturbing at the same time. So, why don't we try for your first class of your fourth grade year?"

At our agreement, we went into The Room. I expressed my surprise at her putting the sensors on again.

"We're playing with times and events that may relate to the block, or perhaps be associated with strong emotions. So, I just want to play things safe."

"Makes sense." She finished, and went over to her seat out of my direct line of sight.

"You're walking in the cool, comfortable forest toward your warm sun filled glade..."

"You find yourself observing your younger self and your two friends. It's the first extra class of the school year after your summer together. What do you see?"

"We're lying down on our mats."

"Describe what happens next."

"He sends us to our tower like last year, but we hadn't known the class was starting today so we hadn't made plans."

"Now, as you rest in your rooms, you hear nothing not directed at you. You'll know it's directed at you when I touch your forehead. Your name is Bill. You don't like to be called Les or Leslie any more. That's a kid’s name. You can't wait for baseball season. You might even try football next year. Sports mean so much to you. You like to have your friends on the side cheering you."

He walked on to Stacy "Stacy, you like things clean and orderly. You like to help your mom clean. School work is also important. You like sitting in the stands and cheering on your friends on the field. You find things uncomfortable when there is disorder. You like to keep records and journals. Nothing ever gets misplaced. You are happiest helping your friends."

"Karen, cheering on your friends is what you do best, whether in a supporting role in the theatre or on the sidelines for sporting events. Academic excellence is fine, as long as you don't far outshine the men in your classes. Following music and theatre sooths your inner anxieties, as does using your hands in arts and crafts. You don't mind being seen, as long as you're not the center of attention."

"Relax. You're back in the forest glade. Relax. Did that kind of instruction continue?"

"Yes. He didn't want Karen to play sports! She was good at all of the stuff. And football? Why would I want to play football?"

"What did you mean by making plans?"

"We found out last year that we could ignore some of his screwy instructions by planning something fun to do."

"You mean you avoided his instructions?"

"I guess."

"How about you tell me what you mean?"

"If we remember to plan some play before our class, we seemed to be able to have a shared dream instead of listening to his drabble."

"Did you remember this dream after the class was over?"

"Of course. It was always a lot of fun! And pulling a trick over him was so much fun."

"Who's idea was it?"

"Stacy noticed that if we had talked about something we wanted to play about after school before class, we ended up dreaming it together. She suggested we try some really fancy things and it worked! We had a bunch of fun games we did. A favorite was a takeoff of the 'It Takes a Thief' TV show. It was so much fun sneaking around and not getting caught."

"How were you caught?"

"If we weren’t finished with our dream before he was ready for us to wake up, he could somehow tell we weren't getting his message. And, he made it hurt sometimes."

"How could he do that?"

"I don't know really. But he seemed to be able to make us not want to play games for a while. And, the yucky things he told us to remember seemed to stick more."

"Would you like to go back to your class and describe how it ended?"

"NO"

"Why is that?"

"It was horrible!"

"Can you tell us what made it so horrible?"

"He told us to stop playing games and be serious. He also said I was a boy, and boys don't do the things I'd done all summer. He kept saying it over and over and over."

"How did he find out what you'd done over the summer?"

"He asked us."

"You're still safe in your glade relaxing. Wake up when you are comfortable."

A few minutes later, I was waking up I guess that's what I call it. "Did all that happen?"

"It certainly sounded like it Bill." Becky looked at Dr. Wong, and noticed that she seemed very disturbed. "Dr. Wong?"

"Sorry. If that really happened as you describe it, it's just WRONG. I can't believe it."

"Why do you think I remember it this time, when last time, I couldn't remember the session?"

"My best guess would be that by pulling you out of direct experiencing of the session, and putting it more into an observed mode, you didn't experience the suggestion to forget."

"How do you think the shared dream thing worked? Do you think that spy episode I had was actually one of these shared dreams?"

"I don't know what to think there. If it was, it's a bit unique. Most people don't dream together."

"I didn't think so."

"Mr. and Mrs. Wyman, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that we need to find and remove whatever is blocking Mr. Wyman's memories. And if the two of your friends have similar missing memories, I'd like to talk to them as well. If this kind of thing really did happen, something needs to be done about it!"

"Okay, I'll be trying to talk to the second one this afternoon. Assuming I can meet with her and she's also got a memory loss, maybe we can get them to come see you."

"Thanks. Now, Mr. Wyman, if we get some good results from your biopsy, I'd like to try to find and eliminate whatever's blocking your memory next week. This could take more time than we've used in the past."

"Do you think it'll need to run past lunch?"

"I hope not, but it might Mrs. Wyman."

"Okay, I'll plan on taking the day off. You okay Bill?"

"Yea, it's not as bad as last time I don't think. Why don't we do lunch. I should be able to drive home fine after that.

# - # - # - # - #

That evening

"I got through to Stacy this afternoon, and I'll be able to get together with her Thursday evening. I wonder if she actually has journals from your elementary school days."

"That would be useful, if she has them. It would probably provide more info than just my fragmented memories, even if they are from a 10 year olds point of view."

"That was my thought. Well, nights."

# - # - # - # - #

Wednesday morning

"Mr. Wyman, we're going to try to do this with a local, if you don't mind?"

"As long as I don't have to look at you shoving it in, I'll probably be okay. I sometimes react funny to anesthetic though, so a bit of checking is in order."

"Okay. We'll let the anesthesiologist worry about that, though I will warn him. Here's what we'll do. You'll get changed into this au vaunt guard beach wear." he let me chuckle at that before going on. "Then, we'll go into the Operating room, where I'll introduce you to the Anesthesiologist and he'll deaden the skin and make sure we can get the biopsy without you feeling a thing."

"Got it, no pain is a good thing."

"Right, so you get changed, and we'll see you in a few minutes."

These robes. They are a pain! But, if there's any bleeding, I'd rather it be on this and not my shirt!

"Mr. Wyman, this is Dr. Gordon. He'll be taking care that you don't feel things. I mentioned you had unusual reactions to anesthesia in the past."

"Mr. Wyman, what kind of circumstances were these?"

"Well, Novocain seems slow acting, but hangs around. And when I had my colonoscopy a few years ago they commented that they had to use a stronger dose to knock me out than normal."

"That's fine. We'll just keep an eye on it. Once we start, if you feel anything, just raise your right hand. Don't try talking. You'll be on your side. If the local doesn't work, we'll go with a general but we'd prefer not to if at all possible."

"Okay, you two are the experts."

"Fine, now lay down here. This IV port I'm putting into your other arm is what I'll use if I have to. I'll have to shave a bit of hair at the back of your head, but it's short there anyway, and will grow back soon. Now, I'm applying a topical anesthetic. That should deaden the skin so you don’t feel even the prick. Okay, please raise your hand. Good. Now, let me know by raising your hand again if you feel anything else. Okay Dr. Johanson, he's ready for you."

"Fine. Now, Mr. Wyman, I'll be behind you. The same thing goes, if you feel anything, just move your hand. Dr. Gordon will be watching you while I take care of this."

"Okay, that's the first one, from the edge of the scar. I'm going to try and get something from the middle of the scar area now." There was a pause, then "It shouldn't do that."

"What?"

"Sorry Mr. Wyman. It seems there's some sort of solid immersed in the scar tissue. Do you mind if we do an MRI to get a better look at it? I'm surprised it didn't show up on the CAT scan."

"Umm. Can I move now?"

"What, Yes. Help him set up please Dr. Gordon."

"What was that about something inside?"

"Mr. Wyman, it appears that there is something hard inside the scar tissue area. It could just denser scar tissue, but I'd like to look closer, to see what it is before just poking around."

"Okay, that makes sense to me."

With that, they called down to the MRI, and were able to work me right in. So, I was loaded into a wheelchair, and it was a trek around the hospital to the MRI suite. The technician then directed me to lie down on the table, and he'd get things setup. It was a bit strange listening to the machine talk to me, but I guess it worked. In any event, the technician was back in helping me get up and back in the wheelchair. And I was wheeled back into the room where Dr. Johanson was waiting."

"Well Mr. Wyman. We have a bit of a quandary here."

"Oh? Is that a good quandary or a bad quandary?"

"Neither really, though I could wish it had shown up in the CAT scan. There is something buried in the scar tissue at the base of your brain. It's about a half inch across, and if I were to guess made of plastic of some sort."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, it is a foreign object. And its presence could account for some of the scar tissue. Now that we know it's there, I'd really like to get it out. It doesn't belong there, and can't be doing you any good."

"What does that entail?"

"We'd make a small incision, peel back the tissue, and remove the object, and much of the scar tissue. The then we'd patch things back together. Given no surprises, we could have it out in an hour."

"Surprises? I don't like that term."

"Well, the thing could conceivably fall apart as we're removing it. Then we'd need to deal with it, but the approach I'm planning is to not actually touch it while it's inside. We would remove it and the surrounding scar tissue at the same time. In any event, as I mentioned earlier, one of the TOP surgeons in the country is available if something were to go wrong. And, I've notified him and he's ready if needed."

"That's reassuring!"

"One more thing, before you make up your mind, if we go in, I'd like to keep you here over night, to make sure any bleeding is fully controlled and in general monitor your condition."

"I'm in favor of doing it. I just need to make sure my wife can take care of things."

"Sure, you can use this phone. I'll step out while you give her a call."

"Hello Becky, it's Bill."

"Bill, I didn't expect to hear from you this early. Are you done already?"

"Not exactly."

"Okay Bill, what's going on?"

"Becky, in doing the biopsy, they discovered that inside the scar tissue there's some solid object, and they want to remove it and the scar tissue today."

"WHAT!" I pulled the phone away from my ear at that. "Sorry Bill. I didn't mean to yell in your ear. Of course they want to get it out. What's the problem?"

"Dr. Johanson wants to keep me in the hospital over night for observation. Can you make sure Ginny's taken care of after school?"

"Of course. I'll also check on visiting hours, and we'll stop by this evening. I bet you're glad you didn't eat anything for breakfast this morning!"

"Oh my yes! I'll make sure you're called when it's over. Love you."

"Love you too. Bye."

I hung up, and got Dr. Johanson. "Okay Doc. Any time is fine."

"That's good, I made sure they hadn't scheduled the OR for another procedure, so we'll head back and take care of things."

"Hi again Dr. Gordon. I guess you get to make me go to sleep this time."

"That's right. I hope you didn't eat anything this morning."

"No, as early as I got up, I wasn't hungry."

"That's good, 'cause I really don't enjoy cleaning the mess that sometimes happens. Let's get you lying down. As the IV connector is still there from last time, where we didn't need it, we can just hook up a drip. Are you comfortable?" At my nod, he continued. "Okay, count backwards from 100 please."

"100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93....."

# - # - # - # - #

Later that afternoon

"Well Mr. Wyman, how are you feeling now?"

"I'm a bit groggy Dr. Johanson. How did it go?"

"Very well actually. You've got a bit of a hole in the back of your head now, I'd say the size of my thumb, that has to be dealt with, but we got the capsule and most of the scar tissue as well."

"I assume you have a way to deal with the hole, right?"

"Yes, and we'll go over that later. I'm not sure, right now, what this capsule was supposed to do, but, I think it was about to fall apart, and I can't believe that would have been good for you. The scar tissue was actually holding it together to a large extent."

"Umm how and when will we know anything about it?"

"Well, the lab is checking on the makeup of the contents of the capsule. They should have a preliminary assessment in a day, and the final report available by Monday morning. Well, unless it's something really strange. And that wouldn't surprise me, given everything else." He shook his head at that. "I've never heard of a case like this."

"Can they Fax the results as they get them to Dr. Wong?"

"Yes, I've got her contact info on the referral you brought. I'll send her a preliminary report today, describing what we found."

"Thanks, can I give my wife a call?"

"Once you're in your room yes, that's not a problem."

"Thanks."

"I'll check in on you again this evening, and again in the morning before releasing you."

"Thanks again Doc."

---

To Be Continued… What is that "capsule"? Are things getting murkier? How will this affect everything else? How will the kids react to dad being in the hospital? Are we getting closer to answers?
 
Author’s Note: Thanks for all of your comments! They really help me, and encourage me to keep going on this story.