Check Up

Inspirational song: Sandy (Grease)

It took until this morning for the epic referral saga to sort itself out. Not that the doctor's office called me to let me know there was still some doubt about the process. It wasn't until I arrived at 2:15 this afternoon that I learned that it was still in the air until mid-morning. I cannot imagine what the hold up was. I've been going to this same rheumatologist for three and a half years. Whatever.

It was so reassuring to finally be admitted through the magic door to see the actual medical staff, after all that meshugas. I hadn't gotten to see my favorite doctor since April, before the surgery. She saw me in my knitted cap said, "What happened? Last I heard you were just going to have radiation!" I gave her the whole story, including the good news that the rough treatment is over and the port was out (she could probably see the white bandage peeping out through the neckline of my shirt). We also reviewed all the medications I was supposed to be taking, if I hadn't just kind of stopped everything altogether while swallowing pills was too hard. Now that I've switched primary care docs, I felt okay getting a second opinion on all the supplements I'd been on. She gave me her blessing to stop a whole lot of things that didn't have a great deal of documentation for whether they were effective for lupus. I believe the way I phrased it was that I was happy not to spend a lot of money on expensive pee, for all the good some of the supplements were doing me. I'm back down to a total of like seven pills a day (including two that are twice a day). I'm not sure what I'll do with all that free time, not having to take so many things. It almost feels like being young and healthy again.

I'm healing well from having the port removed. It is so much easier than the implantation. I'm trying to leave it alone, especially when the incision itches, but it is impossible to be still and delicate any more. I had way too much of that. It's time to DO THINGS. ALL THE THINGS. I picked up some coarse grit sandpaper on the way to the doctor's office, so that I could spend this afternoon and evening working on the game table I'm making. I bet I'm not technically allowed to move quite so enthusiastically, but I have too much to get done before next Wednesday. I sanded the fool out of the side rails, and it felt great to be doing something useful. I'm going to focus much of the next few days on this, and it's going to be glorious.