I'm Not Crazy!

Today I had an appointment with Dr. U.  He wanted to check in with me since this was my first chemo session.  His nurse asked me all of my symptoms and side effects and I had my little journal and listed them off.  She kept looking at me funny, then said she'd send Dr. U in. 

Dr. U walked in and sat down pretty close in front of me and just said, "Ok, what's going on?" I described how I've been feeling the past week and he wrote notes on the butcher paper of the examination seat.  Then he sat for a second and then said, "Shit."

"Uh oh...that's not good!" I thought.  He started kind of thinking out loud and said that I shouldn't be feeling this badly.  That the chemo I'm getting shouldn't cause diarrhea, he already gave everything in his arsenal for nausea, that this chemo doesn't really cause nausea that badly, and the rash/acne really threw him off.  He said for the heartburn he could prescribe something for me, and that was easy to take care of.  But he was kind of confused by the others, and the timing and the delays of them didn't seem right to him.  Then he examined my stomach and pushed down and asked if it hurt.  It did.

He kind of sat there thinking for a while, and I said, "Sorry."  I felt bad being this case that stumped him.  Although I've been kind of an anomaly this entire journey.  Why stop now, right?  He said, "Don't say sorry, it's not your fault.  I just have to figure this out in two weeks so you don't have to keep going through this again."
He ordered blood work, an abdominal X-ray, and a stool sample.  He said all this could be the chemo, but in the case that it's something else, he wants to make sure so that we completely rule that out and we're not ignoring another issue.  He is also having his nurse call me every day to monitor how I'm doing. 

I got everything done afterwards, so hopefully I'll get some answers in the next few days.  While it's somewhat concerning that something else could be going on, it was mentally comforting to hear that maybe I'm not as weak as I thought I was.  Last week was such an immense struggle, and knowing that it shouldn't have been like that made me feel better.  Maybe we can make the next go around a little easier.  Here's to hoping!



Hello! -From the fish in the lobby!