I am a Taurus, and You?
I had another ultrasound today. Dr. P is using the ultrasounds as a way a gauging the effectiveness of the chemo in reducing the size of the tumor. Today's results showed no change in size since the last ultrasound three weeks ago. This actually surprised me a little bit because I can definitely tell a difference, and my intuition is telling me the cancer is dead. It is harder to feel a solid mass now than it did several weeks ago. Delores, the ultrasound tech today, and the one who has been with me since this saga began on May 15, did confirm that the tumor is less defined now and that some of the tissue may be necrotic. It is impossible to tell without another biopsy, and at this point, they will just wait until the surgery to biopsy the tissue. I did not walk out discouraged. Again, the good news is that the tumor is not increasing in size. Also, it did take a couple months for the Adriomycin/Cytoxin to kick in, so it may take a couple of months for the Taxotere to work its magic as well.
I headed over to Dr. P's office for my weekly needle jab, I mean, lab work. You know how I feel about the $7,000 Neulasta shot, but man, does that stuff work! The house is still a mess, and we had to take the car to the dealership to get the oil changed, but my white blood count was fully restored. I asked to speak to Gloria. I start to miss her twisted sense of humor if I don't see her at least once a week. I shared the results of the ultrasound with her and asked her to please let Dr. P know that I wasn't concerned, as I can tell the tumor is changing/responding. If Dr. P was concerned, however, I asked that I be notified that mine was a false sense of security and that I needed to adjust accordingly. She agreed to tell Dr. P and to have Dr. P call me in the event that the results needed to be discussed in any detail. I didn't hear from Dr. P today.
Bo, after waiting over a week, finally has an appointment scheduled with the urologist on September 11. Although Dr. S wanted Bo to have an ultrasound, the urologist wants to examine Bo first to determine if Bo actually needs an ultrasound or not...
We had Lance at the doctor's office yesterday. He has a prominent swollen lymph node in his neck. It has been swollen for months, and when we had him checked out last week during his three year old check up, Dr. G said it wasn't anything to be concerned about. (Yes, I know he turned three over two months ago, but the corresponding annual exam slipped our minds at the time.) Well, this past weekend, we found another lump behind his ear. Anyway, I am not a worrier by nature, even with my kids, but I have always insisted on having lumps checked out.
This time we saw Dr. A, a new addition to the group of pediatricians we use. She checked out the lump behind Lance's ear and said it was also a swollen lymph node. (I didn't even know we had lymph nodes back there.) She also found swollen lymph nodes in his groin area. She said he appears to be fighting some type of infection as the nodes feel reactively swollen. She said if it would make me feel better, she could order blood work. I asked what she would be testing for with the blood work, and she emitted medical jargon for the next 2o seconds. Once she reverted to English again, she recommended that we wait a week or two and if the lymph nodes didn't shrink that we do the blood work at that time. If I would sleep better though, she was happy to order the blood work but she had interned in hemo/onc and she really didn't think it was leukemia. Whoa - who said anything about leukemia? That thought had never crossed my mind until she mentioned it, and now that she had, maybe sleep would be elusive...
Actually, I honestly believe Lance may just be a lumpy kid. My motherly intuition is telling me that nothing is wrong with him, and I am comfortable waiting a week or two. I wondered, however, about my husband, aka, Mr. Worrier, (and I say that with complete affection - one of us has to worry about things or our relationship wouldn't work as well as it does). I made an executive decision that he wouldn't mind waiting a week either - especiallly if he didn't know about it! Then I promptly went out to where he was waiting in the van with Cole and Clay and told him what the doctor had said. (Communication - another component of a healthy relationship.) The information caused Bo a few moments of anxiety, but I think he knows intuitively that Lance is fine too. It's just that now we have added yet one more family member to the medical limbo club. Hopefully Lance's membership, and Bo's as well, will be short in duration, and I will once again have the distinction of exclusive membership.
I really liked Dr. A, but she appeared young, and I got the impression she had just been released from the halls of academia to practice medicine. One clue: After a few minutes of discussing Lance she casually asked me, "What's your malignancy?" She said this in the same way you might ask, "So, what's your sign?" Maybe that's how they talk in hemo/onc. I wasn't offended. It takes a lot to offend me, and besides I know she was just curious. I can honestly say I have never been asked that question before, and I doubt I will be asked again - especially once my hair returns to its rightful places!
I headed over to Dr. P's office for my weekly needle jab, I mean, lab work. You know how I feel about the $7,000 Neulasta shot, but man, does that stuff work! The house is still a mess, and we had to take the car to the dealership to get the oil changed, but my white blood count was fully restored. I asked to speak to Gloria. I start to miss her twisted sense of humor if I don't see her at least once a week. I shared the results of the ultrasound with her and asked her to please let Dr. P know that I wasn't concerned, as I can tell the tumor is changing/responding. If Dr. P was concerned, however, I asked that I be notified that mine was a false sense of security and that I needed to adjust accordingly. She agreed to tell Dr. P and to have Dr. P call me in the event that the results needed to be discussed in any detail. I didn't hear from Dr. P today.
Bo, after waiting over a week, finally has an appointment scheduled with the urologist on September 11. Although Dr. S wanted Bo to have an ultrasound, the urologist wants to examine Bo first to determine if Bo actually needs an ultrasound or not...
We had Lance at the doctor's office yesterday. He has a prominent swollen lymph node in his neck. It has been swollen for months, and when we had him checked out last week during his three year old check up, Dr. G said it wasn't anything to be concerned about. (Yes, I know he turned three over two months ago, but the corresponding annual exam slipped our minds at the time.) Well, this past weekend, we found another lump behind his ear. Anyway, I am not a worrier by nature, even with my kids, but I have always insisted on having lumps checked out.
This time we saw Dr. A, a new addition to the group of pediatricians we use. She checked out the lump behind Lance's ear and said it was also a swollen lymph node. (I didn't even know we had lymph nodes back there.) She also found swollen lymph nodes in his groin area. She said he appears to be fighting some type of infection as the nodes feel reactively swollen. She said if it would make me feel better, she could order blood work. I asked what she would be testing for with the blood work, and she emitted medical jargon for the next 2o seconds. Once she reverted to English again, she recommended that we wait a week or two and if the lymph nodes didn't shrink that we do the blood work at that time. If I would sleep better though, she was happy to order the blood work but she had interned in hemo/onc and she really didn't think it was leukemia. Whoa - who said anything about leukemia? That thought had never crossed my mind until she mentioned it, and now that she had, maybe sleep would be elusive...
Actually, I honestly believe Lance may just be a lumpy kid. My motherly intuition is telling me that nothing is wrong with him, and I am comfortable waiting a week or two. I wondered, however, about my husband, aka, Mr. Worrier, (and I say that with complete affection - one of us has to worry about things or our relationship wouldn't work as well as it does). I made an executive decision that he wouldn't mind waiting a week either - especiallly if he didn't know about it! Then I promptly went out to where he was waiting in the van with Cole and Clay and told him what the doctor had said. (Communication - another component of a healthy relationship.) The information caused Bo a few moments of anxiety, but I think he knows intuitively that Lance is fine too. It's just that now we have added yet one more family member to the medical limbo club. Hopefully Lance's membership, and Bo's as well, will be short in duration, and I will once again have the distinction of exclusive membership.
I really liked Dr. A, but she appeared young, and I got the impression she had just been released from the halls of academia to practice medicine. One clue: After a few minutes of discussing Lance she casually asked me, "What's your malignancy?" She said this in the same way you might ask, "So, what's your sign?" Maybe that's how they talk in hemo/onc. I wasn't offended. It takes a lot to offend me, and besides I know she was just curious. I can honestly say I have never been asked that question before, and I doubt I will be asked again - especially once my hair returns to its rightful places!
posted by Mary @ 6:54 PM
1 Comments:
At 1:49 PM,
Planet Subaru Blogger said…
Not to make light of this or anything, but I hear some new band names in the offing: Prominent Swollen Lymph Nodes (which would be a good one for an alternative rock band), Astrologic Malignancy (which would be a righteous name for a heavy metal band), and Necrotic Tissue (perfect for acid rock).
Post a Comment
<< Home