Short story - She lies. He
lies. They lay.
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I spend a good portion of yesterday and today on the phone. Dr. Kohli, the surgeon, wants a nephrologist (kidney) consultation as part of the presurgical testing. She wants to ensure that they don't kill my kidneys with whatever else they have to give me.
We're having trouble finding one known to her and my PCP who will also take my insurance, and is fairly close to Monmouth Medical Center (where the Breast Center is). Found one today, have an appointment with her July 14. The surgery is scheduled for July 21. Three weeks out. I wish it were sooner.
I have to get a referral to the nephrologist from my PCP, so I called him today to ask for that. The poor guy. He's been getting scan and lab reports, but still feels out of the loop and isn't sure why we need the nephrology consult, so I have an appointment with him on Tuesday to fill him in on what's been going on.
I'm feeling a bit frustrated. I don't like delays. This thing is fairly small, in a good location, and so far the lymph nodes "look good". But it's growing fast. It's aggressive. I don't want it to suddenly decide to become an empire, with colonies elsewhere.
As far as the kidney is concerned, it's only the left that we have to worry about (I guess). I can live with one kidney, and even if the worst happens, there's dialysis, whatever. I'd really rather take care of the thing that we KNOW will kill me and not delay working on that because of worry about the possibility of something that might kill me.
But, I seem to be the only person worried about delay, so, maybe I should relax.
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4 comments:
If the motto is "first do no harm" then I see why they want to protect your kidneys. Maybe they look at is as if the cancer is temporary, but dialysis would be permanent? It's nice to think that the cancer is temporary, anyway. I hope they keep monitoring you until the surgery date so they can bump it up if the cancer starts empire-building.
The main problem is that they won't know for sure if the armada has set sail until the actual surgery.
You're possibly right about the permanent versus temporary thing. They've been throwing numbers at me like "99% cure rate!" But, how do they define "cure"? Is that like "five years before it roars back" worse than before? And even if the treatments "cure" it, is letting it get worse BEFORE treating it worth the increasingly debilitating costs of letting it go to that point? "Oh, we can let it go because no matter how much further it goes, we can hit it with our hammers, we just have to use bigger hammers for a longer time." Um, hey, no skin off your nose, but I'm the one getting hit with those hammers.
(...by "your nose", I mean the doctor noses.)
Just checking in after a long absence, learning about this and seeing that you're handling this with your usual aplomb. Still, glad Daughter is just across the street.
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