A1C and GTT

I'm going in on Tuesday for the tests. Hard to get upset about it. But the Dr. wants to change my beta blocker because he feels that may be the real issue. I think he may be right.

Another Monday

On Monday morning I had an appointment with my Nephrologist. It was uneventful...labs look good. Come back in six months. You may want to get an A1C done because your Glucose is trending higher... Then he wrote something on my paperwork that I'd never seen before. The problem is that he wrote it on the original and when it came through on the carbon copy piece that I got, it was written through a thick line that is the same color. I will have to wait until AETNA updates my PHR to find out what it says. I think it's strange that I should care, but it's like a burr in my skin or something. I just can't stop picking at it.

When I got back to my office after the visit I had a message on my voice mail. It was from the Oncologist office reminding me of my 11:45 appointment on Monday. WTF! I didn't make an appointment with them. I went anyway and they actually charged me another co-pay. The same Tech was in the lab, but this time she didn't ask to use my affected arm. I wonder if someone had a talk with her about Lymphedema. She pulled out the green butterfly and actually got the vein after 3 tries...that's pretty good for my veins. I asked my Oncologist what my Glucose was doing, the labs that my Nephrologist was seeing were a week old. He said that he'd get the CMP results in a few days. They only do the CBC in house. He said that when I'd been in before, it was 82, and he wasn't seeing anything out of the ordinary. I can't explain the difference.

I have an appointment to get the A1C done. It's probably been since the first of the year since I've had one. But I think it's weird that two doctors are getting such different results on tests done so close together. I think they both use the same lab too.

Monday

Monday I had an appointment with my Oncologist. It's always a hard appointment to go too. It's not that I don't like my Oncologist; he's a nice guy. It's just that going there always reminds me that I have been so ill that I was in serious danger of dying. And it reminds me that the difference between being healthy and being that ill again could be easily measured in months. I know that it is illogical to assume that it is going to his office that could be the dividing line, but somewhere in my subconcious mind, the thought is there, that going into that office I can be told that I am that sick again. They seem to be oblivious to the emotional toll it takes to go in there every time I'm asked to do it. And honestly, they aren't really good about keeping up with who has an appointment when. On several occasions, I have gone in when I have an appointment only to have them be surprised to see me. For that reason I always ask for an appointment card and keep it gym clipped to my calendar. Monday I went in and was told that I didn't have an appointment, it had been rescheduled. I hadn't been told that it was rescheduled. The scheduler said that she called 555-355-0533. Ok, I haven't used that phone for a little more than a year and had given them the new number twice. Also, that number was 555-533-0355, and I know that at one point they had the correct number because they had called it before. They also have my office number, which I have requested on more than one occassion to be my primary contact number. Her response was, "Well, we only have the number that you gave us." I never gave them the number that they called. She was very nasty about putting me back into the system for the scheduled appointment that I had that day. I waited for 45 minutes to go in for labs, and when I did get in the tech had difficulty finding a vein on my right arm and wanted to use my left. She argued that my arm wasn't so swollen with lymphedema that she couldn't find a vein. I shook my head and told her that I thought it was scary that she was working in an Oncology office and asked for Emmitt. Emmitt can't draw blood from a vein the size of a firehose, and I usually have to eat my patience while he digs around in my arm to find a vein. But he at least knows not to attempt a blood draw from an lymphedemic arm. After this, I got to go back and wait in my Oncologist's office. I waited for an hour before I was called back into a room and for another hour after that and not even the nurse had come in. I put my clothes back on and left. As I was leaving, the same scheduler that had messed up my appointment told me I needed to check out. I told her no and left without doing it. I was furious. I still am. I've gotten the test results back via my PHR and found out that they only charged my insurance for the labs, and they owe me money back for the co-pay. Still, I wasted 2 hours and 45 minutes of my time, and to add insult to injury, I had to pay the full price to park in their over priced parking lot. I think a lot of my anger has to do with feeling unwelcome in his office. Like I was wrong for coming when I had a scheduled appointment.

After leaving his office, I just barely made it in time for my Dermatology appointment. The Dermatologist took more places off my face. They were small and shallow. He told me that I do the right thing by coming in on time for check-ups.

I'm not sure where to go with this from here. I wonder if the best thing would be to just wait until when the next appointment should be and reshedule for that time. I have been having some issues that I wanted to at least ask him about.

I wish there was a way to just check out of being a cancer patient. ...besides the obvious.