Thanks for all the good luck notes on my last entry. Oncology visit went well. All of my blood reports came back while I waited - except, of course, for the tumor marker numbers because they take a little bit longer to process.
Got to see Hot Oncologist. Damn. He just gets better looking every time I see him. Of course, I tend to fall in love with all of my docs (minus my PCP, who is gay and a personal friend) He’s my same age and is just the perfect specimen of a human. Maybe what makes him so attractive to me is his gentle demeanor.
His first question to me was, “you haven’t been losing any more weight, have you?”
Nope. I made him happy - my weight was exactly the same as last time - which is 25 lbs lighter than when I was in active treatment (chemo), but again, the weight loss was by design and for healthy reasons. It’s when the weight loss is unexpected than an oncologist will be highly concerned.
He had a med student in the room with him, so he was explaining all of that to the guy.
The student seemed really young and I feel like maybe he was pre-med? Hot Onc kept pointing out stuff that I feel like established medical students would know - like, the locations of my gallbladder and appendix. And we talked a little bit about my skin cancers. I still had a band-aid on my biopsy spot on my forearm, but I had a photo to show Hot Onc what it looked like before the biopsy. He made a point to show the photo to the student. The student just sat there, not saying a word. In fact, he looked like a deer in headlights. Weird.
Maybe the kid was scared Hot Onc would try to show him my actual COLON?! Ha!
Anyway.
Also, per the blood tests, I’m still anemic. The iron supplements did no good. In fact, Hot Onc told me that they’d cause constipation, so I’m no longer taking them at all! He suggested switching to a B-12 supplement instead. We’ll see how those do. It’s not severe anemia. In fact, I’m very close to a normal count - just on the low side, so that could actually be my normal. He didn’t seem very concerned at all.
At the end, we discussed the idea of me “graduating” out of oncology! I still have a year and a half to go before I can be declared “cured”, but I told him that I have a really good feeling about it, and he said that he did too!
So, it was a very good appointment indeed.
I took myself to Cava for a Mediterranean Bowl and then went and got frozen yogurt afterwards as my little treat to myself. And then I took myself to my special park bench in my favorite park - the one where I used to go when I first learned about my cancer…the one where I contemplated the very real possibility of death for the very first time. I don’t mean to be melodramatic, but it just felt like death was close and a REAL possibility at the time.
Today I got the reward of weather that cooperated! It rained in the morning just enough to soak into the ground, but then it stopped for the rest of the day instead of raining alllll day like the forecast had been calling for.
Most of the girls who said they were coming to brunch actually showed up…and dressed for brunch, I might add! It was fantastic.
After brunch my friend J stayed behind and she suggested a business plan for the two of us to create a sort of event planning business. She had lots of thoughts about it and we did a little brainstorming together. We even took our first little research trip across the street to a brand new boutique hotel that opened up recently.
This could be something! I feel like more of a side-hustle than a true business at the moment, but we may be onto something unique! It’s fun to think about.
Anyway. I need to get moving. Gotta change clothes quickly and walk the dog briefly. Best Bud is heading my direction so we can have a little dinner together near my Airbnb! I’m staying in an area that has a few fun hangout spots within walking distance.
Ta for now!
GS
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