Monday 01.17.2011 Doctor Day

Dan left for work; I slept some until 0800, too anxious about the day to really sleep well. And I wanted to take a lingering shower to maybe loosen my back some. And, while moving around, I found that the cording in the left arm was quite tender. The warm water and stretching helped both.

I dressed and collected the things I wanted to take to the lake. It all came together well. I ate, loaded the car, and left for the doctor appointment.

Which was really an appointment with Eman, the nurse practicioner. I had met her a visit or so prior to today.

The nice girl without a nametag called me to bring me back to the exam room. First stop, the scales. Let's see.... #169 pounds.....!!!!! My body must be rebounding from the treatment process, as well as from the holidays. Ohmygosh. Time to refocus the direction of the energy.

From there we went to an exam room, a different one this time, though it was about as barron as the others. The one framed piece of "art" was a photo of a row of kayaks, each with their covers on over the seat openings. Most were two person boats, but there were a few solo kayaks, too. I didn't count them, but there were many--brightly colored blues and red, and yellow ones, too, with the dark circles of the covers. I remember thinking "what an odd picture. Thats a lot of kayaks". No paddles, just a solid mass of color stripes and circles. Then Eman came in.

She spent about a half hour with me, but I was there over an hour and a half. We talked about the weight gain, and she said not to worry about it--that as I regain energy it will go away. Okay. She seemed quite confident about that. One of the questions on her list was an irregular heart rate, and we talked about that, too. We ended up with a 12-lead ecg/ekg/electrocardiogram, which showed a textbook-pretty, normal heart rate and rhythm. Which is good, but she wants me to see a cardiologist to check out the abnormalities.

She also did a breast exam, and said she didn't feel any lumps or bumps or anything odd. She pressed pretty hard in the woundbeds, which are sore anyway. We talked about it being time for a mammogram and discussed the discomfort involved. So she ordered a MRI. And a bone density. I had a bone density done as part of my pre-treatment work-up. The aromatase inhibitors cause bone demineralization. The bone density scan will show how the bones are holding up.

She was very kind and knowledgeable and I completely didn't mention about the cording in the arm. I thought of it a hundred times but was going to come back to it. I'll have to take care of it, and call if it gets much worse.

She also said that Dr. Williams tends to see his patients every 6 months until the 5 year mark, then annually. I'm ok with that.

On the way out, I scheduled the lab draw, and follow up with Dr. Williams for July 8 or something. Finally done.

On my way up north.

I had a good drive, with the snow starting north of Linwood. It continued until I arrived at the cabin about 5.

Bob had driven his truck up and down the driveway, and had shoveled the little drift in front of the steps, as well as turned the heat up inside for me. What a guy.

It was lovely to be here. I found myself smiling, even though it's not very warm inside yet. Bob helped me unload the car, and told me dinner was ready, and to come over whenever. Cool!!

I unpacked and looked around. A totally gray day. Sky, brighter gray snowy lake, and the gray of the fine snow, blowing pretty good from the east.

Evelyn had a boiled dinner for us. It was yummy, and we had a good time catching up, and it was still snowing and blowing when I went back home. The tire tracks that Bob had made earlier were filling in. I might have to shovel to be able to leave...

I had a pleasant night putting away things I had taken home to clean, looking outside frequently. It's so different in winter. I hope I have time to take a few pictures tomorrow.

I also hope I sleep well. I'm feeling pretty good, so far. My arm loosened up, but the back is tightening up again. Maybe a motrin is in the future.

Thank you for reading. Hugs.