Never a Dull Moment.....

Well, the saga with Dr. Kathy Miller continues. Initially, I had an appointment set up for Wednesday, July 23. I rescheduled this to July 30 to better accommodate Paul's work schedule. But tonight, my mom talked me through the fact that the 30th is right after a chemo day for me, and she is worried that chemo and a 5-6 hour drive all in one day will make me exhausted for a meeting with Dr. Miller the next day. She's right, of course. So, Monday I'll call and see if I can reschedule for Wednesday or Thursday of the next week. That will be a "rest week" for my chemo anyway, so it will probably be better in the long run.

Yesterday (Friday) I had a small trip to the Emergency Room. I woke up Thursday morning with bruising all along my leg, between the knee and ankle. That part of my legs had been very tender because of the chemo, so I had been careful not to put any pressure on my legs there. Not even crossing my ankles when sitting in a lounge chair, or anything like that. So the bruising was a surprise/worry. Paul encouraged me to call my doctor to check on this Friday morning, and when we didn't get a call back by evening, he said I should call the doctor on-call. That doctor has never met and doesn't know my history, so he said to go to the ER for a complete blood count (CBC). He suspected a problem with my platelets because of the chemo.

I don't know if you've had experience with Midland ER, but I can't sing their praises high enough! The nurse who registered me refused to check me in as a normal patient -- "You'll be here all night," was her explanation. Instead, she arranged for me to sit in the ER quiet room, completely away from all the other people in the ER waiting area, and had the laboratory cart come to me in the waiting room.

We waited until about 8:30 p.m., at which time they hand delivered me the lab results AND my actual oncologist called me back. He apparently had been making patient phone calls all evening, and was just getting to me by about that point. I have to believe that God was in the timing of it all -- how coincidental is it to have lab results and my oncologist phone call within 2-3 minutes of each other?

At any rate, he confirmed that my platelet count was low, but not low enough to be alarming. He said he would have expected the bruising and tenderness that I had, and he apologized that his colleague had suggested the ER. I think he would have talked me through it more as a normal side affect, and not something that had to be checked immediately. I was just so happy that I didn't have to stay in the hospital for a transfusion of any kind!

And I feel sorry for my doctor for still having phone calls at 8:30 p.m. on a Friday night...