A Cancelled Appointment

The phone rang this morning at 8am. I am not awake at 8am - that is unless the groundskeepers next door have decided it's time for the leafblower or, even worse, it's time to pull out the chainsaw and do a little pruning. (Seriously, they started at 7:50am one day last week!) Jim answered it and I went back to sleep because I wasn't planning on getting up until 9am. Now don't jump ahead in the story... Jim did not wake me up to take the call. He just took a message and let me sleep.

9am rolled around and I decided to get up at 9:30 - don't judge me, I've been through a lot! : ) At 9:30 I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. Jim came out of his room and told me that my 2:45 appointment with the gastroenterologist had been rescheduled to next Tuesday at the same time. [Okay, so he just said my appointment with the doctor, but I'm sure if he knew the doctor was a gastroenterologist, he would have refered to him as a gastroenterologist.]

UGH!!!

Well, that's not going to work because I have a final for my psychology class from 12:30 to 2:30 next Tuesday and the doctor's office is in Santa Monica. Remember when I was late for the dermatology appointment in Santa Monica - I will never let that happen again! So I had to call and schedule it for later that day. It didn't seem to be a problem. We just pushed it out to 3:30pm.

I did have to go to class this afternoon though and I was so looking forward to not having to go, but it's over now. I have one more economics class and then two finals next week and I am done until September 27th when I start grad school.

How Many Doctors Can One Person Have?

As you may haven noticed, I have not been updating much recently. Honestly, I just haven't felt like it. No real excuses... oh, except the two weeks I was on large doses of painkillers. I didn't do anything for those two weeks. There's nothing wrong and no need to worry. I'm starting to feel more motivated to post again. Anyway, here's my update:

I met with a Hepatologist, Dr D, a few weeks ago because my liver numbers have been a little bit wonky for about 6-7 months. Nothing dramatic, but just not quite in the normal range. Dr D believes that it's likely scar tissue that is partially blocking one of the ducts in my liver. He has ordered an ERCP to check it out. If that is the case, he'll insert a stint during the procedure and that should take care of it. There is a remote possibility that it is a reoccurance, but I have had a CT scan (with normal results), a liver ultrasound (with normal results) and many blood tests and there is no evidence that is the case. I'm not concerned about it. I'm still waiting for the ERCP to be scheduled.

I finally had the MRI of my neck that was ordered back in February. I hadn't had an MRI since the day before my diagnosis, but I remembered how utterly enjoyable they are. The machine is really loud; you have to wear earplugs. I'm not claustrophobic, but stick me in the MRI tube for 30 minutes and I start to freak out. I hadn't had the "head cage" experience before. Because they were taking images of my neck, they put my head in a little cage to immobilize it, but there was a mirror angles so I could see out the end of the tube... because that helps. The results of this test couldn't be more normal. Absolutely nothing wrong.

Monday, I had an appointment with Dr W. We have decided to discontinue treatment. I have attempted multiple adjuvant treatments and have not been able to tolerate any of them. After 8 months of trying to get in 6 months of treatment, we're letting it go. Yea! I have a CT scan and an chest X-ray scheduled. If the results of those come back normal (and we fully expect them to), I don't have to go in (to oncology) for 3 months. Woo-hoo!

I asked Dr W when I should get a colonoscopy. He asked me when my last one was. Long pause... "I've never had one." So I've been referred to a Gastroenterologist to have my first colonoscopy. If there are no polyps, I should be able to was a few years before I get another one. My consultation appointment with Dr F is on the 22nd.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with Dr B, my dermatologist. He was not happy that I went ahead with the Vectibix treatment. He would have preferred that I try Erbitux again, but at a lower dose. He was also not happy with the antibiotics that I was prescribed and told me to stop taking them immediately (I only had 2 more doses, 1/2 day, left of a 14-day round). He doesn't want me on any more antibiotics for the rash. We're trying some different topical treatments to help along the healing of the discoloration of my skin. Dr B said it could take months to go back to normal. I told him that I have to be in a strapless dress at a wedding in July. He's going to help in any way that he can.

On Monday, my platelets were at 121. That's right. 121. This is the first time that they've been over 100 since last September. 150 is the beginning of the normal range. Do I dare to think that they might rise that high?

Sheesh! I've had a lot of appointments recently.

Still to come (perhaps in the next few days): the rest of my Washington DC story; my trip to Seattle; and probably another rant about how much I dislike my psychology class.

Until then...

It's A Red Letter Day!!!

Guess who has been accepted to graduate school this fall?

IT'S ME!!!