Yesterday, on top of my annual eye appointment, a teleconference call, and a meeting with my undergrad research assistant, I received the following phone calls:
- from my acupuncturist's office reminding me of Thursday's appointment
- from my oncologist's office reminding me of today's appointment
- from my wound care office asking me to switch Wednesday's appointment from the morning to the afternoon
- from the dentist's office asking to reschedule my son's appointment in November
- from my dad reminding me that he needed to borrow my car on Wednesday
- from my former grad student, Brenda, who is doing some searches of archives related to Alaskan Statehood; we made an appointment for lunch to go over some questions she has
- from the mom of one of Eddie's classmates - she has started delivering me dinners on Thursdays since school started; we need to get caught up, so we're having lunch tomorrow
- from Scott, who was home with his daughter who just had two of her wisdom teeth pulled
Then, I made a couple of phone calls - one to my brother to get his work hours, which I then called to my office manager, and then to someone I worked for years ago to get a referral.
And, oh yeah, my friend, Rick (no, not George) is chopping down the pie cherry tree in my backyard, so he was over at my neighbor's house to take care of those limbs in the neighbor's yard. I helped with some of the clean-up afterwards.
Whew.
And, today, I have counseling, then another teleconference call, lunch with a colleague, and a check-up with my oncologist.
Why all the activity? Part of it is just the reality of being a metastatic breast cancer patient with several appointments each week. Then, add on top of that, "normal" appointments like the eye appointment or the dentist. And, I am back on contract at work - my sabbatical is officially over- which means more appointments there. Sigh. Actually, I should say, "darnit!"
At least, the weather's gorgeous. No complaints there! Hope everyone has a great day . . . hopefully without appointments!! LOL
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
A Day of Phone Calls
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2 comments:
Boy can I relate! I can't complain since my daughter is grown up and I'm no longer dealing with her appointments and I'm not dealing with active cancer. But yesterday was gynecologist physical and today was dermatologist. I did fit in something fun after each before returning to work at my home office. Last week was doctor pain and the week before that was surgical onc.
I'm putting off my mammogram and medical oncologist (both of which were also due). Since the two ONCS ended up the same month and I don't have active cancer I figured I push one back to in a few months. I will get the mammogram soon, of course, just not this month.
I can imagine how hard it is for you with active treatment and a young son. My heart and thoughts are with you.
Carver,
Of course you can complain! It's never fun to have to take time out of your day for medical issues and we cancer survivors have those out the wazoo! On the other hand, yes, we are still alive.
Having so many appointments just speaks to how specialized medicine has become. And, it isn't just medicine, but all fields of science and American jobs in general. What happened to valuing general practitioners or people who are "jacks of all trade"? They serve a purpose, too. It's just too bad that we can't get all our care in one spot, with one doctor coordinating all the efforts and bringing in the specialists when needed. Sheesh, you have the regular stuff, then a dermatologist, a med onc and a surg onc on top of regular things like ob/gyn and a mammogram. How crazy - and expensive!!! - that all is!
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