Tag Archives: doctor

January 11, 2021

Posted on by under cancer, Uncategorized

I had a follow-up appointment with my surgeon today. It was mainly to check the healing of my port and lymph node incisions, which I’m happy to report are healing “very” well (doctor’s words). Since this was the first time I’ve had a chance to talk to him since my surgery, I took the opportunity to ask a couple of very important questions. First and foremost, when can I wear deodorant again? I mean, really. One incision is right under my armpit and for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been using deodorant only on one side. Thankfully, I’m not doing manual labor, so it’s not gross, but it’s weird. Seems I’m clear to use “a little” unless it becomes irritating. Yay! Small victory.

My second question was more of a confession. I wanted to know how to avoid the embarrassing recovery phase next time I have surgery. See, I have constant sinus issues and the morning of my surgery, I had been having a lot of sinus drainage. I was intubated and when I woke, I immediately had a hard time breathing because of the drainage left behind. I’ll avoid being specific, but for hours I struggled to cough up or swallow down the phlegm in my throat. Full disclosure, choking is probably top of my fear list. Needless to say, the longer the feeling persisted, the higher my anxiety went. At one point, I started a cough that sounded more like a high-pitched dog bark. The recovery nurse consulted an anesthesiologist, and I was given a breathing treatment and steroids to help reduce the swelling in my throat. FINALLY, I was able to go home. It still took me three days to be able to eat and drink without fear.

My surgeon didn’t know all the details, but I laid it out honestly for him. I know it was mostly me. I admitted that I wouldn’t have been surprised if Xanax was the next thing they were going to give me in recovery. But I want to be prepared for next time. Sadly for me, it appears they can’t just suction all the crap out of my throat after surgery. Sadly, I’ll need to be intubated for the next surgery as well. But thankfully, he listened. And not only that, he put in my chart details that made my experience sound medical and normal. There’s also a note to discuss with the next anesthesiologist. Victory!

Listening is really an underrated skill. Sometimes, just hearing what someone is saying can do wonders for lessening a burden. I’m still thankful I won’t have surgery again for months, but in the meantime, I’m thankful I have good doctors.

Seriously? Can we just be done now.

Posted on by under Uncategorized

The semester is over. Finally. I submitted my research proposal and took my last final exam yesterday. If all grading goes as well as I hope, I should finish this semester with a 4.0 gpa. Yay, me! If not, then, damnit, me. Or, if I were like a lot of the students here, it would be my instructor’s fault, of course. I’d say she just didn’t like me. But I know that’s not the case, so I’ll take whatever grades I get and keep plugging along, especially since my 4 week summer class starts next week. The instructor sent us the 48 page syllabus ahead of time…Gosh, I’m excited about that class. Gulp.

I like putting a period at the end of things. That means I can take a step and move on. I’m wishing that were the case with more than the semester. I found out that the miscarriage is still lingering. I’ve spent the last several weeks having my hormone levels checked with a blood test. Apparently, when a woman gets pregnant, her body starts producing a special hormone (hcg) that increases twofold every 2 to 3 days or so until the later months of pregnancy when it levels off. Blood tests measure it in number, and any number above a 5 is considered pregnant, although ideally the number should be zero in normal, non-pregnant conditions. My number this week registered at 117. I could go into a diatribe about my disappointment with my doctor at the moment and how things have been handled (or mishandled). Let me just say that his response was that something could still be left behind, but he’d like me to wait another couple of weeks to check my hormone levels again. Instead I made an appointment with a new doctor for next week.

In the meantime, my body hates me. I can feel it. I can feel that something is wrong. My regular female hormones are trying to take over in a raging battle that’s making me wish I were a dude. Yesterday was a particularly bad day. I felt on the verge of tears all day and had to avoid any cute baby animal-related videos on Facebook in case someone walked into my office at the wrong moment. Yet at the same time, I wanted to kick something. Hard. I secretly wished one of the posturing geese we have on campus would finally pick a fight. I would have won and it would have been epic. It’s a horrible feeling when you know you’re an emotional mess but you’re incapable of stopping it. You just have to hold on and try to avoid saying or doing anything that causes lasting damage. At one point in the day, my daughter texted asking for a favor. This was after finding out that I needed to stay an extra hour longer at work. And I was nice in my reply,  I really was. I even ended my message with a warning that I was not having a good day and she thanked me for the heads up. By 5 pm, just as I was heading to a new student orientation where I had to be available to answer questions of parents and their kids, I got a migraine aura. For those of you who’ve never experienced this, it’s like when you look into the flash of a camera and the ring of light stays behind in your eyes. I had those flashing, zigzagging lines in peripheral of my right eye which meant that I couldn’t see anyone coming at me from that side. I’m sure I looked like a weirdo constantly looking back and forth just so I could get a complete view of my surroundings. It lasted for almost an hour and  I braced myself for the migraine to follow. But it didn’t. Instead, all my hormone-filling angst of the day disappeared and I felt somewhat normal again. Damn, cruel body. I just saw the new Avengers movie and I realized that I can relate to the Hulk. At any moment, he turns into a wild beast and once he’s back to normal, he feels guilty and slinks away. I’m just hoping that I don’t also turn green.

I’m counting the minutes until I can meet my new doctor. I hope she takes one look at me and feels sympathy. I need to have this ordeal over. I tried to explain to my boyfriend last night how I’ve been feeling. I have to give him kudos for trying to understand, but I know I sound like a lunatic. Everything is horrible! Things aren’t working out. Maybe this is just a sign that we aren’t supposed to have a baby. When I get emotional like that, I miss having my family around. I need to feel connected to someone whom I know knows me. The people who can just laugh at me or slap me (not literally) and make me feel grounded again because I know they get it. I’m not crazy. But I now think Patrick gets it too. He did what I needed. Rationalized things for me. Teased me for being a mess. But also hugged me for a bit and told me things would be ok. Once again, I’m grateful for him. And for my kids, who also hugged me when I got home because I had given the heads up on my bad day. No questions asked first. Have I mentioned lately that I have great kids? So…I know I’ll get through things, like I usually do. It’s been a long time, but hopefully, I’ll have better answers next week. And I’ll try not to take anyone out in the meantime.