A BUSY COUPLE OF DAYS

A BUSY COUPLE OF DAYS....

I seem to have less and less time to myself these days, which creates feelings that can only be described as frustrating.  I try and try and try to get my house in order, and my garden cleaned up, and all my appointments scheduled and kept track of, but no matter what I do I end up at the end of each day with more things on my list for the following day than I had for the present one! When something happens unexpectedly, as it did yesterday, I find a whole block of time taken up which puts me behind and screws up my whole carefully planned out schedule.

Case in point: I woke up yesterday morning with some pain in my chest and right side.  After talking to the nurse at my oncology practice we decided that I should go to the EMERGENCY room at my local hospital to be checked out, which I did.  When someone comes in complaining of chest pain they are given an EKG right away.  That turned out fine - no signs of impending heart attack, etc. but after that I spent the rest of the day getting poked and prodded, x-rayed and evaluated and, finally, ultra-sounded (gall bladder - no signs of any problems there).  I was released at 10:00 p.m., with all test results in hand, so that I could make my appointment the next day at Johns Hopkins.

During those long hours in ER I had a front-row seat. It was an exceptionally busy day/evening in one of the most stressful sections of the hospital.  Besides a full waiting room (8 hr. wait), there were also numerous EMS teams dropping off patients with varying problems every half hour or so.  One of those patients was a 19-year old young man who was no doubt high on drugs.  He screamed on and off for a good hour pleading with the nurses and doctors not to inject him.  He sounded like he was in serious pain but I'm pretty sure the staff was just trying to calm him down.  I felt so sorry for him -- and the women and men who were trying to help him.  In the room next to me was an older woman, also high on drugs, who had a long history of addiction and had apparently tried to kill herself.  There was constant checking of charts, blood being drawn, evaluations done and meetings with the doctors. The phones rang constantly.  When I was finally released the stillness of the evening seemed unreal compared to the cacaphony of sounds I had been bombarded with all day.

Once home I collapsed into bed so that I could be up and on the road to Baltimore early the next morning.  We made it to the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins right on time which was pretty amazing since just navigating through the huge complex of buildings was a feat in itself.  I simply asked various people where it was and how to get there and everyone was very kind and helpful.  My experience with check-in and initial taking of my height, weight, blood pressure, etc. was fine and within minutes I was face to face with the doctor.  She had all of my records and was able to tell me pretty quickly that because of my liver levels I was not at present a candidate for her vaccine trial.  When I asked her what could be causing the abnormal levels she said that it could be alcohol consumption and/or the chemo.  We then talked about other options for fighting my cancer.  What I didn't know previously was that Dr. Leisha Emens also takes patients like a regular oncologist which has caused Bob and I to consider switching from Andrews & Patel to Dr. Emens at Johns Hopkins.  We will wait to make a decision until after she has a chance to talk to my present doctor at A & P and to access what the alternative treatment might be.  Part of my leaning toward Dr. Emens is that she would be able to keep a close watch on my liver and if there was a significant improvement I would be able to join the vaccine trial.

So that is a brief account of two days in the life of a Stage 4 breast cancer patient.  Now back to trying to get my house in order so that I have more time for the things that are most important to me: my family, friends, reading, art projects, a small garden and a warm and cozy fire come wintertime.

Now on to my chemo treatment this afternoon - Phew!

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Waiting in reception at the Kimmel Center

 


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Bob and Andy Buerger post appt. with Dr. Emens

 


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Johns Hopkins/Kimmel Cancer Center is somewhere behind the main building