Tuesday, August 25, 2015

And Medical Appointments

I met my new doctor until Medi-Cal (Medicaid in other states), well, the NP who I liked. A gray hair originally from Wisconsin so we hit it off pretty well. She hit it off with my husband, too. I brought in a folder of stuff:


  • Intro letter explaining about the DS and the need for quarterly labs and why
  • A list of labs I needed ordered
  • A couple of articles about anemia and weight loss surgery / malabsorption
  • A list of my current and former doctors, diagnoses, supplements, and medications.
  • List of current symptoms / ailments


I was ready man, I was not in the mood for any arguments.

And you know what? I didn't need to bring out the big guns. I told her about the anemia need for an iron infusion (shortness of breath, exhaustion, heart skipping around periodically), and she was totally on board with it, ordered all the labs on the list I gave her, told me she'd set up the iron infusion once she knew what my labs were, and come back in two weeks. I'm assuming she'll call me when labs come in with infusion directions (or I'll call--she said labs take about a week), and was super nice, friendly, compassionate, and open-minded. *whew* What a load off my mind. I didn't have to bring out the big peer-reviewed medical article guns. LOL  *exhale*

Oh:  I showed her my hernia and she mentioned that we needed to "take care of that." Uh, yeah.

So I had the labs done the next morning, fasting, it was a lot of blood and made me very tired for the next couple of days. I forgot to count the tubes but I'm sure there were at least a dozen, plus a urinalysis.

My new gynecologist cancelled my appointment from earlier this month and rescheduled it for yesterday.

Again, I was prepared. I had copies of all my recent diagnostic tests--mammogram, pelvic ultrasound, examination by former OB/GYN, and ta da! It just came on Saturday, my PAP smear results. It only took five phone calls and $15- to get that. *&^%  And it was fine. Had them all in an envelope, my husband drove me because we were going to run some errands after, and I sat down in a very crowded office to discover...the doctor was at the hospital, not answering his phone, presumably delivering a baby.

*sigh*

I'm rescheduled for next Monday. I told the gal, "I'm a cancer patient, something is growing in there, and I'd like to find out what it is..." she understood, but it is still frustrating because I want that thing out of there, whatever it is. I'm trying to be zen about it, but if you've ever had cancer, every weird thing that goes on in your body must be a new cancer. It's hard not to go there. Lump on my elbow? Possible cancer? Bloody nose? Possible cancer? Like that. Everyone on my OM boards does the same thing. Sometimes it is cancer, that's the terrible part about that. Regardless, I just want it out of there. And I want to talk about possible removal of the uterus. I'm not sure about the ovaries. We'll see. My last period was only 3 days (and hooray!), but it coincided with the blood draw so I'm sure it contributed to my tiredness.

Now I'm trying to find a psychiatrist who takes Medi-Cal because I think it's time to tweak my anti-depressant. Granted, things have been stressful financially and relationship-wise, but going blind has also been very difficult and depressing. If I ever lose the ability to read I don't know what I'm going to do. Thank G*d for the Kindle so I can make the text larger. I can no longer read normal sized text books--I did get a magnifying glass, however.

So anyway...I think that catches me all the way up. If not, there's always tomorrow. C'est la vie!


2 comments:

  1. Any chance you can get in with a gynecological oncologist? My regular gyn referred me to one anyway once he found my leision.

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  2. I have no idea. I have straight Medi-Cal and a lot of places won't take it. I'm supposed to see the gyn tomorrow, and he cancels again, I'll be looking for a new doc.

    Thanks

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