Aaaah, Freak Out!

Yep.  I've had a bit of a  Freak Out.  Ok, more like a major melt down.  Sure did.  Monday, (the day AFTER the last blog was written, but same day most people saw it) I woke up with my gimpy left boobie lookin all red & inflamed.  Felt like heat was radiating out of it too.  And the redness was very well defined from the scar all the way around, encompassing the whole boob.  So yeah, I freaked out.  Naturally, my first thought was OMG, so now here we go with Inflammatory Breast Cancer??? OMGOMGOMG!!!!  

But no.  Thankfully.  THANKFULLY NOT!!!  But, as a result of this little scare...I've already seen the surgeon, Dr V.  Kinda doin things backwards now.  Usually it's mammo first, then Dr V.  But with this little development, I kinda wanted to get it looked at ASAP.  So I got to see him yesterday.  Of course, when I got up yesterday, I could see the offending boob had gone totally back to normal, but went ahead with the appointment.  He took a look.  Doesn't see any problems.  Scar feels fine.  So you'd think that would give me a bit more confidence goin into my mammo tomorrow.  HA! Yeah, right!  Anyway, he said it's likely that steroid shot I got Sunday for my stupid upper respiratory issues may have caused it.  I learned that apparently, since I had radiation to that area, that skin & tissue will never again be "normal"...& can be affected by things that go into my body or possibly even some physical activity.  Between the shot & the hard core boom operatin I've been doin...appears that's what happened.  And this mornin, I'm happy to report, "Ol Lefty" continues to appear normal.

So, mammo tomorrow.  I'm still nervous.  But maybe not quite as much.  Thanks, Dr V!!! =)

2 Down....

And 2 to go.  That appointment with Dr W sure caused a bit of a freak out.  What doesn't with me, right?  So anyway, I get there, hubs meets me there.  And the blood is drawn & we're waiting in the exam room.  Ususally Dr W comes in after about 10 - 15 minutes.  You know how you just know the doc is about to come in the room, cause you hear him pull your chart out of the thingy by the door?  Well, I heard him, or somebody, pull the chart.  But then he didn't come in.  And he didn't come in & didn't come in & didn't come in.  For about another 30 frickin minutes!!  So, of course I'm all like, "OMG, OMG, OMG, something's wrong...something on the X-ray or the blood....OMG, OMG, OMG." 

So then he FINALLY comes in & was apologetic.  Apparently he was still diggin out from all the reschedules that happened over the last 2 weeks from the ice & snow, & he had been behind all day.  And then at some point during that day there was some sort of altercation with a patient which involved police! (Wow, someone threw a bigger fit than I did last January 2010!) And this took up some time. 

I was just like, WTF ever, HOW did the X-ray look?!  He said that the X-ray looked good & that my blood work was "beautiful".  I love havin "beautiful" blood work.  

So, armed with this info, I will be a bit more at ease at the next test, which is the mammogram.  But possibly not so at east at the one that follows that - the pelvic sonogram.  Hopefully Tamoxifen is gettin along with my uterus just fine & not causing any thickening of the lining.  

And THEN after all that, I get to go back to the Endocrinologist's, Dr F, for MORE blood work.  He says (& Dr W agrees) we gotta get to the bottom of what's causing the Parathyroid Hormone issues.  Jeez.  More labs.  More $$.  More gettin poked at.

BUT, having the good news about the chest X-ray has pretty much kept me smilin.  :)

Posted Jan 21, 2010 If You've Got the Money Honey....

If You've Got the Money Honey....

Posted Jan 21, 2010 3:35pm

Soooooo, I was supposed to have my Herceptin infusion after Radiation today. But it didn't happen. Got the call at 9am this morning. My appointment was for 10:30. Gonna have to start getting my Herceptin done in the hospital until my ultra high health insurance deductible is met. Needless to say, this didn't go over with me very well. Nope, not well at all. Those of you who know me well might have some idea of the kind of "scene" that followed.

Hubby walks in on me in mid-meltdown on the phone and takes the phone from me and tries to reason with the nice Financial Director lady, to no avail. So I show up to the cancer center for my radiation. And after much bad noise & flailing about....the answer was still no. No can do. No payment plan will be worked out. Leave that to the hospital, which is more financially able to work out payment arrangements. See, Herceptin is very VERY expensive, and my health insurance deductible is very VERY high.

I really think the deductible should already be met, what with me having had 12 radiations to date, but it's a matter of the billing being submitted & the insurance paperwork getting done, so by the time they figure out that the deductible WAS in fact met, I will have already had 1, possibly 2 infusions at the hospital.

This cancer center I've been going to is owned by 3 of the oncologists who work there and they have to pay for these drugs up front. And, it was explained to me, I'm not the only patient requesting that a payment plan be worked out. And if they agreed to work it out for all who ask, they would soon be out of business. So, apparently I'm being unreasonalby upset.

The thing is this: this is serious business. I just don't like the idea of having to trust a total stranger to administer this infusion. I've come to know and put my trust in the chemo nurses at the cancer center. Now I'm gonna have to get it done, at least once, by a total stranger. And maybe this should not freak me out, but it totally freaks me out! Yet, those chemo nurses were all strangers to me in the beginning too. Oh well...this is ME...Miss High Maintenance I guess. They claim I'm not the most High Maintenance patient they've dealth with. Sheesh, I'd hate to meet whoever THAT is, cause I'm pretty dramatic with this stuff! LOL!

Sooooooo, today has not been a very good day. Nothin like being the fodder for the cancer center office staff to chit chat over my drama-queen-ness. And I get to show my face there again tomorrow for the radiation. Thank GOD they don't offer THAT at the hospital!

Anyway, so NEXT Thursday I'll get the dern Herceptin. Eh, whatever! I understand why this is how things have to be, but I don't have to like it.

And I don't.