Waiting again . . .

Having cancer means that there's a lot of medical appointments, with a lot of your time spent waiting to get in to see the doctor or to take the test, or it means waiting for the results of tests. I'm in waiting mode this week-end . . . so cancer patients need to have a lot of patience on top of everything else.

Take last Thursday, for instance. I dropped my son off at school at 7:50am and got to the hospital about 8:00 and to radiology at 8:05am. It took the receptionist a few minutes to figure out what was going on and after the paperwork was ready, I went down the hall to Nuclear Medicine. They brought me right back, but then we waited for the IV nurse, since the techs couldn't find a vein for the IV. In the meantime, they found that CT could fit me into their schedule, so after I got the injection for the bone scan, I went back out to the waiting room to wait to be called in for the CT. I was called in about 9am and finished at 9:30am. I had a snack in the cafeteria and then went to my cardiology appointment at a few minutes before 10am. The doctor had been called down for a catheter in surgery and he didn't come into the waiting room to chat with me until about 10:45am. He decided that I needed an EKG and I got that scheduled for Feb 25, in about two weeks (waiting again). This way, we figure out if my heart really is damaged (because of the MUGA scan three or so weeks ago) or if it was temporary because of the flu. Then, I went back to nuclear medicine for my bone scan; I only had to wait a few minutes and then they took two 20-minute pictures and I had to lie really still for both. Afterwards, around noon, I went back to the cafeteria to grab lunch.

This week-end, I've managed to stay fairly busy. Friday night, my cousin, Caroline Brown, and her husband and daughter drove down from Seattle (where they were visiting from Nome) to visit me and stay the night. They left Saturday afternoon. My boyfriend was also here; my folks came over for breakfast on Sat morning so mom could visit with Caroline, then we all went to my sister's house for my niece's birthday party. I got back home about 5pm and spent Saturday evening with Scott and most of the day today.

In the meantime, I'm waiting to hear about the results of my bone scan and CT scan - I hope to hear on Monday. Also, I never heard from Dr. Kenyon, my insurance, or this pharmacy in Portland that is going to send me the chemo drugs (Xeloda and Tykerb). I don't know if insurance is, in fact, going to pay for Tykerb, or whether or not Kenyon has had to talk to them and make a case that I should go on it. So . . . I'm waiting for test results and for drugs. I'll let you all know what happens when I know!