Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Living in la-la land

I sometimes feel I am living in la-la land - without a care in the world, not worrying about my next ailment coming down the pike at me. At this point, I know there will be something else but I can't bring myself to worry about it at this point becuase I have enough crap to worry about now.

I went to the conference this weekend, and at one of the sessions I attended a woman was there who was a diagnostic radiology (that would be the x-ray/PET/CT scan department)nurse and the subject came up for what can you find out in various tests and when to have them and all sorts of fun cancer topics. (I must say we don't sit there moaning about our latest medical blooper, but usually try to laugh them off. This is a crowd that has been through it all, so there isn't much we can't find humor with.) Anyway, so after the session, I asked her if bone mets are detected in a PET scan.... drum roll... they are not. You need a bone scan. I said I had a spine MRI in January and she said I probably need a bone scan to be sure because the spine MRI only looks at your spine. And x-rays don't pick up all types of bone mets. So I am not worrying about this but have just put this on my list of things to talk to my new oncologist about in a few weeks. Its gotten to a point that it might be nice to know what is going on with my back so if it was something like that, at least I would have an answer.

Yesterday I was reading again (I should stop this, it gets me in trouble) and found this article on CNN about underdiagnosed health problems women have. This will also be another topic of conversation with my doctor in a few weeks. It has been suggested that RA might be something else to look at. Someone at the conference suggested I be tested for fibro myalgia but the more I read about it, the less it sounds like me. But I am not worrying about any of this.

What I am worrying about is my missing back doctor appointment. It has mysteriously vanished from my list of scheduled appointments. The problem is if was canceled for some reason, it may take another couple of months to get back in to see him. Grrr... I want answers. I will be pushy (and try to contain my inner evil bitch) but I will call and be assertive.

Anyway, I have managed to massively overschedule my week. I need to leave here in 45 minutes, work until 230, meet with the meds doctor to figure everything out, come home do some more work, and then have dinner. But I did get a decent night's sleep so that's a big step in the right direction. But now I am late so must go.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope that you know about Dana Jennings' blog at the NYT about his experiences with cancer. He is an exquisite writer and captures many subtle feelings that I suspect are universal about dealing with this disease and trying to heal and recover. Today's column is another gem. Robin

Ghocheng said...

Hai, i just read your blog post. Keep update with latest information and thanks for the cnn link. Thats very usefull information

Unknown said...

Hi, I've been reading regarding cancer and the inmune sistem. It seems interesting to me how the NK cells and the T cells help us against this desease. Also there are natural products that can help us to power up our inmune system like Transfers Factors. Here is a link DrSalud where you can find more if you are interested. Regards

Ann aka ButDoctorIHatePink said...

Wow, Caroline, it's all so scary isn't it? It just never ends. Since my diagnosis, I have thought of nothing else, day or night. I'm getting really tired of it. You are much farther down the road than me and still dealing with it constantly. I hope some day I can not think about it! (PS. thanks for the link, I really appreciate it.)

Arla said...

Hello Caroline - I hope you found your appt time for your back! I now have notes all over and understand what chemo brain is all about! GEESH! I can forget the smallest of things. Just wanted to wish you a good, special day. Make it special - or at least as special as it can be.

Eileen said...

Am confused now, since the way they found out about my bone mets was through a PET/CT scan. ???

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