I've spent a lot of time in waiting rooms over the past 5 months and have observed many other patients during my waiting. All walks of life can be found in these waiting rooms - some are old, some are young, some are frail, some are healthy, some have their kids with them, some sit alone, some smile, some avoid eye contact. We all process the experience of waiting differently. I saw one woman talking to someone on Facetime in the middle of the oncology waiting room. Some sit quietly and stare into space. Some (me) try to keep as distracted as possible. I've seen tears and smiles from the same person within moments of each other. I've seen fear and jubilation. Really, I've seen it all. As I have noted, there are familiar faces most times I am in the waiting room. It is nice to make the connection with those people even if it is just through as smile or a nod.
I was in my oncologist's waiting room for about an hour today. He was running way behind because his rounds at the hospital took way longer than expected this morning. I certainly cannot fault him for that as his patients in the hospital need him way more than I.
Once I was called back for my appointment, my doctor and I celebrated my great pathology report, he did a very quick exam, and we talked for a few. I am still swollen from surgery so the exam was somewhat pointless because there is no way to really tell how I am healing at this point. I asked him to talk to me a little bit about what I should consider a cause for concern moving forward. I think that I said "what should make me pick up the phone and call you right away." His answers included seizures, extreme persistent headaches, blurry vision, balance issues, persistent dry cough (that one is tough for an allergy suffer like me), persistent back pain, persistent severe abdominal pain, or anything else that does not go away within a few weeks. Fair enough. I am hopeful that knowing what would be a cause for concern will help me to not worry about the minor things.
My doctor also told me that I should have my port taken out. Since I had a complete response, I am not considered to be high risk for recurrence so he'd like the port out since it can cause complications on its own as is the case with any foreign object in the body. I made an appointment to have that done on Monday afternoon. Pretty exciting because the port has never really been that comfortable. It has not caused pain, but it is about two inches below my collar bone so in an area that does not have a lot of cushion so I can always feel it.
I also asked my doctor to check the lymph node in my neck that recently screwed up my evening, and he said that he did not feel anything at all. Happy days.
I also do not have to see my oncologist again until October 9. I've been seeing him every 2-3 weeks for the past several months so it is exciting to be able to spread the visits out a little bit. I'll have plenty of other medical appointments between now and then so it will be nice to have a break from that particular waiting room.
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