Primary Care Visit This Morning

This morning, Sheila and I headed into town for an appointment with my primary care doctor.  I was feeling pretty lousy but the drive is a short one so it didn't take too much out of me.  I definitely did not want to go though.  At this point, I'm pretty sick and tired of medical problems being front and center in my life so having another medical appointment did not thrill me in the least.

When my doctor came into the examining room, Sheila and I were both surprised to learn that she had already discussed my case with my oncologist before we arrived this morning!  She knew things that I had discussed with my oncologist last night and it was obvious they talked about changing some of my medications.  This sort of effective communication is great but it is also a stark reminder that my health problems are serious.  

The other sign of the seriousness of my health is that my oncologist worked on my case Monday afternoon and into Monday evening.  She was still contacting me and my pharmacist at 7pm that night.  I then had another appointment with her after hours yesterday.  Then, somewhat surprisingly as I previously mentioned, my oncologist and primary care doctor managed to discuss my case early this morning before my appointment with my primary care doctor.  Effective communication between medical professionals is a great thing and it should always work this well but, when it happens so quickly and even after hours, it is definitely a reminder of the seriousness and severity of your current health. 

After you have been ill for a while or have been diagnosed with a serious chronic illness, you are always looking for hints in your doctors' behavior when they are explaining things to you.  I happen to try to read everyone anyway but I definitely pay close attention to behavior in my medical appointments.  Quite often the behavior and choice of words is more telling than what the average person would hear.  This communication between my doctors at two different facilities, after hours, and so quickly was a hint that what I am experiencing medically is serious as well as atypical.  

Anyway, we made a few small changes to my prescriptions.  I'm still doing a steroid therapy to help my body recover from the anaphylaxis as well as from the subsequent seesawing back and forth into near-anaphylaxis multiple times a day since last Friday.  Between my oncologist and my primary care doctor, we also scheduled a number of additional appointments with other doctors, additional follow-up appointments and additional treatment.  I now have a fairly heavy schedule of medical appointments, tests and treatments that will likely run into the summer.  Some of these appointments are not yet on my calendar but we suspect they'll run into summer.

So far, the steroid therapy that I started a couple of days ago seems to be helping me recover.  I still have some pretty miserable times each day but other times I feel closer to my normal health so that is good.  My energy levels have been at all time lows in recent months so I'm hoping that this steroid therapy might boost that a bit too...  at least for a short while.  

Anyway, my primary care doctor is great.  I couldn't ask for a better fit specifically for me and my health.  That being said, I still had no desire to head to her office this morning after the week I've had.