I had an agenda for Monday. First I called the gyn-onc office again to see if I could get an earlier appointment. The correct assistant was back in the office and said, "No problem! We will fit you in first thing Wednesday morning, after the doctor sees the morning chemo patients." My first thought was "Yes! That is only 2 days away!" My second thought was, "Chemo? Wow..." I called my hubby and told him the good news. We would have some answers on Wednesday.
I called my infertility doctor's office to request my records. The gyn-onc doctor wanted to take a look at these at my appointment. They were incredibly nice there (they were nice throughout the infertility process but now they all knew what was going on) and said they would have copies ready by lunch.
Next I planned to go get my chest x-ray. I headed to my hospital - I say my hospital because I have been there for 6 years, 4 as a medical student, and now 2 as a resident. As I walked in the door of the outpatient building and registered with the prescription in my hand, "chest x-ray. diagnosis: endometrial adenocarcinoma, rule out metastasis," I realized that I was now a patient here. Of course I had had my share of primary care, gyn and eye doctor appointments in the past, but I had never actually been "sick" before. And I didn't even feel sick. It was a strange feeling to be on the other side of the medical world. The x-ray was easy and even a little interesting. I had looked at hundreds of chest x-rays but never actually seen one done. Now I know.
My next task was lunch! I had to take advantage of a little time out of the hospital (away from work, I mean...). My cousin and I met for a yummy lunch and to discuss all of this. I picked her up for lunch and got a phone call from my oldest sister while we were in the car. Over my car's bluetooth so we could both hear, my sister said, "I have some bad news for you." I was thinking, "what now...?" "The girls both got sent home from school today with lice and since you and (hubby) were with them all week, you need to check yourselves for lice." Seriously? We all started laughing. She explained in detail how we needed to check our hair. I couldn't help but feel itchy all through lunch.
After lunch we headed to Rite Aid to find some lice searching supplies. Its a good thing I have a supportive cousin who was willing to look through my thick blonde curly mess. We followed my sister's instructions thoroughly and didn't find any of the little nasty things in my hair. I searched through my husbands later and didn't find any there either. We were clear!
After getting cleared I drove to the fertility center to pick up my records. They were ready for me at the front desk but I walked back to the billing office with a quick insurance question. I had met one of the billing specialists multiple times, a really nice woman. She walked me out to the board of baby pictures (their success stories) and pointed to one and told me the story. The baby's mother had been diagnosed with some type of cancer and was unable to carry a pregnancy. Her mother worked in an office and had shared her daughter's story with her colleagues. One of the woman who worked in her mother's office volunteered to be their surrogate. They were able to harvest eggs and after a successful surrogate (gestational carrier to be politically correct) pregnancy they had a beautiful healthy baby. With my eyes tearing I thanked her for sharing the inspirational story, took my records, and headed out to my car.
Now to focus on Wednesday's appointment... I called my program director who gave me the day off for the appointment. I just had to survive one day working in the operating rooms before we would have some answers.
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