You know you look at Friday from a different perspective when you are retired. Instead of the longing of seeing that you are close to the weekend, as it was when we were working…thinking about all the fun plans for the weekend…or boring house stuff…when retired it is almost just another day leading in to another day. For some retired people it may be the last day the stock market is open for a couple of days, as it often is for David, but mostly just another day. And sometimes, when retired, you don’t even realize it is Friday…when in the past while working you ALWAYS knew it was Friday. How perspectives change! LOL
Some Updates
CT Scan — since the CT appointments kept getting changed due to the insurance company needing more information, I had decided that I would not even mention “CT scan” on my blog because I got sick of saying…the appointment was moved again!!! But late yesterday, Shelby (Dr. Chen’s nurse) called me and said insurance approved with one minor adjustment. Chen ordered the CT scan with contrast of the neck, chest, stomach and pelvis, and the insurance agreed to all of it except the chest because I had the chest CT at Mayo just before surgery. Even though that was done without contrast, Chen agreed to what the insurance company asked at this time. Shelby indicated that once Chen gets the results, if she feels contrast is important then they will go another round with the insurance company. And at this point, maybe we should just pay out of pocket if Chen feels it is important. And when they do the scan, will they turn the scanning on, start at the neck, oh “turn the scan off” to jump over the chest and turn it back on to do below the chest? Seems kind of silly to me, but then I don’t work for the big buck insurance companies that are probably trying to save a little money. So now the appointment is next Tuesday and it will be nice to have that behind me. Chen had said one the CT was done she would meet with the radiologist and determine which lymph node to biopsy, if any, and then move forward. If they feel they can’t safely biopsy what they want, then we will just do a watchful wait and see if the lymph nodes enlarge or maybe reduce since all of the trauma of the tumor is done with my body. What a journey this all is and glad I am writing it down so I remember what a journey it was.
Chen asked if I would give her permission to share my tumor with their Tumor Committee. So Ted may be famous soon and maybe part of a medical study? WOW who knew!! Not sure why Ted is so fascinating, but whatever….maybe his stealth way of appearing, maybe they will have to warn people not to play bocce ball, or maybe just those geeky doctors enjoying the wonder of tumors!
As I said after talking to the surgeon about being able to take the ace and brace off, I finally got the chance to enjoy a shower and not have to only have a sponge bath. And that was amazing!! It is the simple things that you sometimes miss when you are confined like this. It took a lot of work to get it done, but we will probably become more efficient as time goes on. Just a nice little step forward!!
Had a couple of neighbors visit yesterday…Connie and Beth. Another neighbor, Char visited a few days after we came home to bring us some medical assistance things and Connie had brought over a hot dish early on, but really being social was not high on my list the first few weeks. So it was so nice to have the visit yesterday and I even had David help me curl my hair a little so I was somewhat presentable for company. :-). Still did not get out of the chair, but both gave me some wonderful hugs when it was time to leave. Taking another step into the social realm, Jermar’s parents, Deb and Phil, will stop by to visit today. They were so kind to text me and see how I was doing over the last few weeks and I promised them once I felt more human and ready for social interaction…LOL…I would have them over. So it will be great to see them. Phil has been through hip replacements so he understands the journey of recovering from surgery. I look forward to his great, and humorous, insights.
Well, I think I have caught up on the news of the day from here in my recliner in Blaine. I told David I was sick of looking at the windows at the same scenery, so asked if he would paint pictures on the windows so I could look at something else. LOL. Today I am going to venture to the bathroom on my own, so maybe I will take another daring step and go out on to the porch and look out those windows for a while!! New scenery!!
Take care…Happy Friday…and do something fun today!
God Bless!
Dandy Ventures 