MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

Barbe I am IN!!!!!  Much luck Sweets.  Know I am watching over you.  I'll keep the troops in line!!!  Luck and love to you!!!!

jumping in Barb!!

Kay,

My WBC has been normally low, around 3.8 or so (at least for the past 4 1/2 years).  This time it dropped to 2.8 and so my onc wants me to see one of the hemotologists on staff to see what maybe going on.  I had rads back in 07 and did not have chemo.  So here goes another round of tests. UGH

Good luck Barbe!!!!

I just realized yesterday looking at my calendar that I don't have any Dr appts until Jan 13th, woohoo a month with a dr appt

Bringing some Aussie heat with me! Oops Sherry and Jo didn't mean to step on your toes! Are you sure there is enough room? Good luck Barb!

Hi ladies,

Barbe: I think i missed the party:( hope everything went really well.

I thought about you ladies all morning...and was bummed that I forgot to ask for company. Today was an endoscopy to check for where i have an apparent GI bleed. Didn't find the exact bleed but found 20 stomach polyps and an enlarged diafraticulum. Biopsied 4 polyps...lining of stomach and diafratic. and will get report hopefully Tuesday. RBC counct and hematocrit are also low but they think from the bleed earlier this week.

Next Tuesday is report and re-checking of blood so I would like to book for then. GI surgeon today says he thinks onc might want colonoscopy next week as well, so I'll ne in touch if so to reschedue another.

Gotta say, this is starting to get pretty exhausting. The 29th was chemo 4 of 6 and next is 19th. I really love to hear aboutn you ladies who are through because it keeps me plugging along, knowing that it will end.

Hugs to you all,

Lee Ann

Barbe-I'm the short one, so I got pushed to the bottom of your pocket when everyone else piled in! Hoping and praying that all went well!

Tori 

MP is a long horn sheep?

Claire, at least I didn't get a result of "sub-optimal sample" this time!! I know Papillary Carcinoma is very rare in the breast. That's what my breast cancer was and it's also one of the most common thyroid cancers. So...maybe they're doing more staining or something???

Barbe--find out where the results are, go there and demand a copy, then hand carry it to your doc's office.  They'll give you a lot of grief about how "we can't do that" (actually if a patient asks for a result they HAVE to, can have you sign a release for HIPPA).  "we've never done this before, don't know how to" (YOUR problem, not mine, if I ask for the result you MUST give it to me).  Make enough noise and commotion to be sure that the whole office or department or whatever knows you have already had one appointment without the results AND without an explanation of the delay.  If we pateints don't get noisy and demanding we're going to keep getting pushed back behind the computer and billing processes.  We are far more important than either of those processes. 

I went to Medical Records once for the results of a bone scan. You'd think I was trying to take the hospital down!! Then they finally said it would be $50 and I turned and walked out. In September of this year, I called Medical Records and they said they didn't have the results from the lab yet so I said put me through to the lab. I got the lab and they said it was the wrong extension and they'd transfer me. I expected to be back at the switchboard, but surprisingly, I WAS talking to the biopsy department!! She said, Oh, it's just come up, I'll send it on to your doc. In both cases, the results were benign. I wonder if they don't have a sense of urgency to pass on bad news and bad news gets transcribed faster?? How's that for logic? Makes sense to me.

I'll have to keep the appt on the 21st either way as he is the surgeon that will take this mass out whether it's benign or not. Years ago I had a HUGE substernal goiter and this could be it, back with a vengeance....though I did see the 1 cm lesion on my thyroid....hmmmm....I dunno!!

Kay, isn't it an infection that they have to "cuture"? I thought cancer was either there or not. But I do think that they have to wait for some reason. Problem is that the radiologist said my doc would have the results in a week! Why would he say that if it took longer? I'd have felt better if he had said 2 weeks. Then I would know. I'm really thinking now that it is B9 and there is no urgency to type up the report!!