Tag Archives: Doctor

3/16/2018 Oncologist Update

18 Sunday Mar 2018

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Oncologist Update: Because of some miscommunications with the insurance company, go figure, I have not been approved to be on my new medicine yet. I may end up walking the paperwork to the department myself if they keep losing it. Anyway, it’s been six weeks or more since I’ve had any CML meds and we, more so me than the doctor it seems, are starting to get a little concerned that my numbers might get a little high. If the insurance company approves the meds, it could take up to three weeks before my meds arrive. Nothing to do but wait. But, as luck would have it, the representative for the new drug was there in his office. He gave my doctor a card for a free 30 day supply which should arrive by Tuesday of next week. This should give my insurance company time to process my approval for this drug.

Bloodwork. It’s been six weeks since my last lab. My last one wasn’t good at all. Every one of my numbers was either very high or very low. Yesterday’s numbers were normal for the most part. This was in large part the effect of the drug I was on. The side effects just made my daily life impossible to deal with.

New Drug: Bosulif is the name of the new drug. Right now I’ve been on two of the most common and there are only a few left that is approved by the FDA. Thanks to Karen Davis-Hudson she eased my mind about some of the side effects that were mentioned in the insert. However, Karen, I think you mentioned that 1/10 developed fluid retention, my doctor said 4/10. Not that much of a difference. The other side effects I think I can handle.

The Good News: The doctor and I both agree that the fluid in my lungs is gone and we’re going to have a positive attitude that it will not return and that this medicine will be the last one I have to be on because this one will work. I can breathe, my color is back and most importantly, I feel good. So much so, that if the weather holds, I’m going to try to get my bicycle out one day this weekend.

This is all due to all the prayers that have been lifted up for me and my family. Thank you so much.

Improving? Not so Much.

28 Sunday Aug 2016

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I started back on my CML meds last Monday and to be honest I think my breathing has gotten a little worse. I’ve started climbing the steps at work a little more and trying to maintain at least 10,000 steps in a day. I spoke at length to my oncologist last Monday the day I started back on my Sprycell and he told me that the majority of the people who end up with water retention will do better at a lower dosage.  I’m now at 80 mg instead of the 100mg that I was once on.

I’ve decided not to just sit at home waiting to see if my lungs will fill back up with fluid.  I don’t really feel like getting out and doing anything but I feel that I’ve at least got to try  and get what little exercise that I can get.  I think it could only help matters if I get off the couch and do something.

Yesterday, my wife and I met our son at the university where my daughters are attending.  They’re both in the band, one plays the sax and the other is a band manager.  Yesterday was their parent preview show.  It was awesome seeing my daughter’s perform. I got to meet one of their roommates and enjoyed going out to dinner afterwards.  As usual it was hard for us to leave after visiting with them.

Today I went to my parents house to check on them as well as my bees.  It’s been at least two months since I’ve done either one.  The bee yard was grown up with weeds and it took everything I had to use my weedeater to chop down the weeds just so I could get to the beehive.  After about an hour of cleaning up I went and sat with my parents for a couple of hours.

It was hard to leave my parents. They are both getting up in age and their health is not as good as it used to be.  My mom had to have more surgery a couple of weeks ago on her diaphragm due to finding a hole where her colon and her intestine were coming through.  The doctors seem to think that this was caused by the accident they had back in February.

The above picture is of the band managers.  The young lady is my daughter.  What a  trooper.

It Sucks Getting Old :(

08 Friday Jul 2016

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For several months now I have been undergoing a barrage of test by one doctor or another. If you’ve ever seen the movie National Treasure, it’s like one clue leads to another clue.  It all started with a personal evaluation that was performed on me back in March from my boss.  In the months prior to my evaluation I had made several costly mistakes.  Luckily they were all monetary and not personal injury.  During my evaluation my boss discussed with me that he was worried that either I would be harmed by my actions or the person I was working with would be harmed.  He also stated that until I was checked out by my physician I would be temporarily placed on light duty with any safety related responsibilities.   At first I was furious as you can imagine but the more I thought about it the more I realized he may be right.  Although I didn’t want to admit it I had been experiencing some forgetfulness but I had chalked it up to getting old.

The first test was with a neuropsychologist.  I failed miserably.  One test consisted of the nurse reciting a list of paired words, about 50 I think, that after she recited the list I was supposed to repeat to her one of the words that was paired too.  Example; Truck-Bread, Dog-Umbrella.  She would read Truck and I was supposed to tell her Bread.  I failed at this test.  There were several other tests that I failed at.  The results that were given to my primary care doctor was that I had three areas of disabilities, motor control, memory loss and multitasking.

Another test that was performed was on my feet.  I had been put in the hospital with influenza A and pneumonia.  After spending a week there I was released to spend another week at home.  While I was off I had an appointment with a neurologist in which I spent over an hour being hooked to electrodes that shocked my feet to find out just how numb they really were.  After the tests were performed I was given the diagnoses of diabetic neuropathy.  Hell, I already knew that.

During one of my visits with my oncologist I was given a test to check out my immunity because being admitted twice to the hospital in less than six months set off a couple of alarms.  He did a preliminary test and it came back showing signs of IgG deficiency (immunoglobulin G). I went back on Wednesday of this week to let them do a more thorough test.  I’ll find out the results of those test sometime next week.

Today I went to another neurologist that all i did was talk and answer a few questions.  A small word association test was performed and again I failed.  He asked me to remember three words and he would ask me later on to recite these words back to him. When asked a few minutes later I couldn’t remember the three words.  I saw the doctor for only a few minutes after which he wanted to do a blood test and an MRI.  The blood test was done downstairs but the MRI will have to be scheduled once the insurance company approves the test.

So, as you see I’m falling apart.  I’m not letting it get me down.  Just living day to day right now.

Patience is Not One of my Virtues!!

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

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I called my oncologist twice yesterday and didn’t hear a word from him.  I know Monday’s is his busy days so I didn’t get too upset but when he didn’t call me back first thing this morning I decided to give his office a call again.  I again left word with his receptionist and waited for his phone call.  He finally called me back about an hour later and after I told him what I wanted and why I was calling he sounded offended that I would question his earlier report.   Anyway, the information that is posted on the website is wrong.  The correct result is 0.0001% which is the lowest it’s ever been since my diagnoses.  The website has it listed as 1.0%, which is quite a bit different.

Negativity Gets You Nowhere!

26 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by in Cancer, Depression, Photography

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I’ve been down on myself the last few weeks. I thought being on vacation would snap me out of it but the whole time I was gone I kept thinking of the time lost that I would have when I returned back to work.  The exciting news that I got from my doctor while I was away seemed to have helped but now that I have my doubts about the results I just can’t help but feel down again.

The heat has a lot to do with it I feel because I wanted to do something with my kids today being that they were home and not working but everytime I went outside I was just drained from the heat and humidity.  Plus, with all this humidity, it makes it difficult for me to breath.  The next two days the rain chances has increased to 70% so maybe after the storms roll in here at least it will cool things off a bit.

This coming Thursday, June 29th, I will have been married for 25 years.  I have already made reservations for Saturday at a place called Perry’s Steakhouse.  It’s a bit pricey but my wife is worth it.  Putting up with me and all my ailments; she deserves more than a pricey steak and a night on the town.  She’s going to flip when she sees the prices on the menu though. But maybe the flowers that I have ordered that will be sitting on the table when we arrive will take away some of the shock.  We don’t usually go out on the town like this.  It’s usually places like Logan’s steakhouse where you pay $12 to $15 for a steak or go to Cracker Barrel.  Those places are more to our taste.  If I get out of Perry’s for less than $200 I’ll be lucky.

July 4th is coming up in a week and I have that day off which means a three day weekend.  If I can just make it through this week.  So you see, I have a couple of things to look forward too.  With this in mind maybe I can get out of this slump that I’m in and I can have a brighter outlook.  It’s going to take me some time for me to build up more vacation time but at least my doctor’s appointments are down to a minimum right now.  That’s another thing that has me upset is the fact that right now if I have a family emergency I can’t do anything about it.  I can’t take off right now if I had too.  Tomorrow, if I’m not wrong, I should have 10 hours built up.  That’s not much but it’s a start.

I hope everyone has a great week ahead.

 

 

I”ve Been Released!!

02 Saturday Jan 2016

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In case you’ve been wondering if I’ve fallen off the face of the earth I haven’t. I went to the dr on Tuesday, he sent me to the ER where I sat for six hours before being emitted.  I had no phone service nor a computer so therefore no internet.

This is all I’m going to post for now as I haven’t been home long.  I”ll try to post my last post of the photo challenge tomorrow.

Everyone have a good weekend.

365 Day Photo Challenge 329/365 “Day 24”

24 Tuesday Nov 2015

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Today was a bust.  I spoke with my doctor and he advised me to not get on my treadmill for a few more days.  If it’s not any better by next week I’m to come to him for some x rays.  With that said I guess I’ll wait until the weekend to try it again.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 305/365 “What a Day!!”

31 Saturday Oct 2015

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My daughter woke up a little better than when she went to bed last night.  Wife told me she would call the doctor when they opened and get her an appointment when they opened.  I had their blessing to go on to the cookout without them.

The weather cooperated for the most part throughout the day.Although it did sprinkle at times it didn’t last long.  The park was to close all the roads inside the park at 9am and would not allow any vehicles to enter or exit the park unless it was an emergency.  Also at 9am was the start time for the Fairyland Festival for the younger kids.  Do driving through there either.  So I wanted to get there before they closed the roads and unload my truck and then move my truck to a designated parking area.

At about 11am we started cooking the chicken pot pie and two different types of apple cobbler.  One was my recipe and the other is a recipe that was found in one of my cookbooks.  Where we were located we were in direct view of everyone that came down our little road.  I can’t tell you how many times we were asked what’s for supper.  We was told that you could smell the aroma over into the next campground.

There were about fifteen people that I cooked for today.  One of my smaller groups. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and went back for seconds and even thirds.

By 2:30 there was an estimated 10,000 people enter the park to trick or treat.  I’ve never seen so many ghost and goblins in all my days.  I was really impressed with all the imagination on the outfits.  Although, I do have to question a couple of them on their legality.  Some of them showed way too much and left nothing for the imagination.

Around 6pm the rains came and was heavy and furious.  For the most part the rain stopped the trick or treating.  Once the rains settled in the festivities ended rather abruptly.

I did hear back from my wife about my daughters doctor’s visit.  There is a small chance the has Salmonella or other gastric issue.  We won’t know for another 48 hours.  Doctor’s told her to rest and not go anywhere this weekend.

The rain came in around 5pm or so and when it decided to rain, it poured.  I had not loaded anything in the truck and I along with all my cast iron got soaked doing so.  I guess I’ll be spending some time tomorrow making sure all my cast iron is dry before putting everything is.

All in all I had a wonderful day today.  Although my family was not able to join me I had fun cooking for the folks as well as watching all those ghosts and goblins.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 273/365 “Half Day Tomorrow”

29 Tuesday Sep 2015

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I have a doctors appointment tomorrow with my general practitioner.  I see him every six months and have been every since I’ve been diagnosed with Diabetes.   If you don’t have a regular doctor I would highly suggest that you get one.  If it wasn’t for my biannual checkups my CML would not have been diagnosed until it was too late.

I’ve got to talk to him about several items that I’m having problems with so it might be a longer visit than normal.  I will not be going back to work after my appointment.  I’m sort of looking forward to a little time off.