A new twist on duck, duck, goose

Its called test, test, doctor....

This is getting really old. Enough tests. Enough doctors. I love you all but please leave me alone.

Yesterday, I spent all day at Kaiser. Here is how it went.

11:00 -Go to the infusion room. Stop by pharmacy on the way to turn in prescription. Get a needle with tubes stuck in the port to "access" it. Had some time to spare before the next appointment so chatted with another patient going through the same treatments as I have been through/am going through.

12:30 - Off to Nuclear Medicine to get an injection of radioactive material.

12:45 - Back to pharmacy. Stand in line for 40 minutes to pick up prescription.

1:30 - See gynecologist for first time since before being diagnosed (She was on vacation when I came in with my complaint that eventually led to diagnosis). The meeting was a very good one. She did a PAP and a rectal (ouch!) and informed me that I should see her once/year to have my ovaries checked and that if I had any bleeding, I should see her immediately. We then discussed HPV and my previous bouts with cervical cancer. She told me that 30% of the cases that are first frozen result in recurrence. I was one of those. She also said that HPV comes and goes and that, although I don't have it now, I could have had it then. Very interesting and informative discussion. We went on to discuss hormone balancing - not to be confused with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and saliva testing which Kaiser does not do. She offered to run my progesterone, testosterone, estrogen and FSH levels so that I could take them to an outside doctor who does hormone balancing. Then we talked about bone density. She tried to look up my results but found that Santa Teresa reads them differently than Redwood City so she could not compare them. There was a note from my oncologist that my density had dropped and we needed to discuss Fosamax. I talked with her (my gynecologist) about diet and exercise for bone density and she understood and saw that it could be considered as an option or augmentation. She told me that I wasn't in immediate danger but it would allow me to address it before I became 80 and got a broken hip/back/you name it. She even asked me how I was doing mentally and how I was handling the breast cancer. She said I seemed fine but it is difficult to tell in a 15 minute appointment. I appreciated her asking. She also said that it is good I had taken control of my health and learned about it so that I could ask questions. It didn't offend her at all - unlike some other not to be named doctors. A lot happened in this appointment and it was all good. I really appreciated talking with Dr. N.

2:15 - Met Debbie at Applebee's for lunch. She was talking with another lady who had breast cancer. She pulled down the collar of her shirt and showed me the "healing hand" tattoo she had tattooed on her chest just below her collar bone.

3:30 - Back to Nuclear Medicine for a 45 minute ride through the scanner as it scanned my whole body head to toe. I looked over at the screen and saw my skeleton front and back including the slight left to right curvature (scoliosis) of my spine. The port was glowing where they had injected the radioactive material through it so they had to run that part of the scan again from a different angle to show that it was the port and not a cancer in the bone.

4:30 - Back to the infusion room to have the needle and tubes removed from my port. Sharon was so nice and we ended up having a discussion of my horrific early days at Redwood City as I struggled to get the care and diagnoses I needed. I commented on the purple teddy bears for the Relay for Life events of the American Cancer Society and she gave me one. They are so cute - and of course, PURPLE!

6:00 - Debbie and I finally left and headed off to Joanne's fabrics to pick up some backing material for my wall hanging and then to Michael's to look at picture frames.

I was exhausted by the time I got home just in time to watch the Amazing Race finally won by local boy Tyler (son of owners of Buck's on Woodside Road) and his friend BJ.

Today, I went to WW - up 0.8lbs and then back over to Kaiser - this time Mountain View - for more blood tests. They took 5 tubes - 4 small ones and one big one that I swear took forever to fill. I was watching my blood flow into it, into it, into it and wondering when it would be done as I started to feel faint. The technician looked at me and said I looked pale - I could have guessed it.

Next was off to OSH, then to Color Tile to try to figure out which tile would fit the shower repair my brother is doing for me and then to Michael's where they were out of the 11x14 canvases I like to use. Home for a quick bite to eat and milk and lots of water as I was still faint. Then back out to Redwood City to more tile places and finally home with a couple of samples now waiting to be decided on.

So much to do.....so little time....and too many doctors appts/tests........