meetings without answers
Aug. 2nd, 2017 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmegaeraWhich is not like doctors without borders.
I had my first meeting with the oncologist this afternoon. I saw lots of pictures of my insides, but the upshot is she wants to take more (I get a full-body PET scan, an MRI brain scan, and a bone scan -- none of which, at least, involve taking any more bits of me -- and I have Ativan to take an hour before each scan, so that's good, too). The breast biopsy appears to be off the table (no pun intended) for now, thank gods. Apparently we've got much bigger fish to fry (that's my sister's translation of what the doctor said). They're also going to closely examine slides from the two existing biopsies side by side to determine for sure that they're not the same cancer (the doctor is pretty sure they aren't, but she wants a more definitive answer from the radiologist).
The back pain is getting worse even though the gabapentin dose has been upped, and there are cramps again, too. I've contacted both my PCP and the oncologist to see if there's *anything* to be done about that. I know they're going to say narcotics, and my -- admittedly extremely limited -- experience with narcotics was *not* pleasant. *Why* does the pain always get worse at night??? We're talking a baseline of about seven, with leaps up above eight when I lie down. And it's bloody unrelenting. 24/7 without a break, although it is better during the day than at night. If I ever catch whoever's following me around and jabbing me in the back with that piece of rebar, their death is going to be slow, laborious and beyond painful. "With a spoon?" "Yes, you twit, it'll hurt more."
Anyway, my next appointment with the oncologist is on Friday the 11th. Onward and sideways, I guess. I wish I'd gotten more answers, but apparently there just aren't any yet.
"I can't do this, Sam." I just can't anymore. And, yeah, I'm being a drama queen. Sorry.
I had my first meeting with the oncologist this afternoon. I saw lots of pictures of my insides, but the upshot is she wants to take more (I get a full-body PET scan, an MRI brain scan, and a bone scan -- none of which, at least, involve taking any more bits of me -- and I have Ativan to take an hour before each scan, so that's good, too). The breast biopsy appears to be off the table (no pun intended) for now, thank gods. Apparently we've got much bigger fish to fry (that's my sister's translation of what the doctor said). They're also going to closely examine slides from the two existing biopsies side by side to determine for sure that they're not the same cancer (the doctor is pretty sure they aren't, but she wants a more definitive answer from the radiologist).
The back pain is getting worse even though the gabapentin dose has been upped, and there are cramps again, too. I've contacted both my PCP and the oncologist to see if there's *anything* to be done about that. I know they're going to say narcotics, and my -- admittedly extremely limited -- experience with narcotics was *not* pleasant. *Why* does the pain always get worse at night??? We're talking a baseline of about seven, with leaps up above eight when I lie down. And it's bloody unrelenting. 24/7 without a break, although it is better during the day than at night. If I ever catch whoever's following me around and jabbing me in the back with that piece of rebar, their death is going to be slow, laborious and beyond painful. "With a spoon?" "Yes, you twit, it'll hurt more."
Anyway, my next appointment with the oncologist is on Friday the 11th. Onward and sideways, I guess. I wish I'd gotten more answers, but apparently there just aren't any yet.
"I can't do this, Sam." I just can't anymore. And, yeah, I'm being a drama queen. Sorry.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-04 02:35 am (UTC)