It's been an interesting week. I knew where I stood and what to expect with Dr. 7, my former chemo Dr. I haven't had any other chemo Drs yet, and only one other oncologist, a surgeon.
Monday I had a blood test since the chemo drug I'm on can severely suppress blood counts. I took it easy Tuesday and went birding walking a mile over the morning on Wednesday. After lunch at the Blue Onion (Southwest Pork Green Chile day!) I headed home putting my feet up by 430 PM. And that's when it got interesting.
The phone rang. It was the infusion / chemo suites. Dr. 8a, my new temporary chemo Dr, ordered an injection to boost my white blood cell counts. I didn't know that my counts were 10% normal on Monday - no one told me that! I have to call in to get test results, they don't volunteer that info. But here they go telling me I had to come to the hospital for a shot RIGHT NOW before 5 PM. Um. My blood counts were low two days ago, and the counts are supposed to rebound by 14 days after treatment. Traffic is so bad that it's probably a 45 minute ride to the hospital at that hour of the night. I play 20 questions with the nurse on the phone and find out how low my counts were, two days ago... ! Why they didn't tell me sooner... sigh. Anyway, I talked to the nurses in both infusion and chemo Dr offices and decided that we could wait until the appointment today and see what the blood test shows Friday morning.
So I went in early and gave blood (third stick was the charm), and went back in for a Dr appointment at 1:20 PM. I'm informed the Dr hasn't finished his morning patients and was just leaving for lunch. Um. It's going to be a long wait. I get copies of the blood work and the good news is my blood counts were back to normal (and more) this morning. And it was a LOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG wait - over two hours. When the Dr finally introduced himself to me he went back through everything from diagnosis to biopsys to past treatments. He ended up recommending four days of chemo instead of five, to see if that helps with the blood counts. He also passed on seeing me again for four chemo cycles, which the nurse overruled into two cycles. Interesting. So as long as the blood work is as expected / OK, I can keep going without seeing a Dr. I did get an appointment for Dr. 8b, another temp, for January.
Dr 8a was entertaining - he got turned around and thought I'd left at one point. And as I was leaving he wanted to know about the venogram! He thought an ultrasound would be the way to go - I'm already in the waiting room, lol! I said at this point I'll see if the shadow shows up on the next CT.
So two more rounds of chemo and meet a new Dr. That's the plan.
