Brachytherapy & Other Good News

Once again I found myself in Phoenix.  Today I was accompanied by Coach.  Yeah, I think he has a crush on me or something.  We went to the Arizona Oncology radiation department and got to meet with Dr. L....finally.

His support staff is pretty stellar.  We were first introduced to their billing department.  Miss J was fantastic! She let me know that I had a $11,000 deductible and then waited for my shock to appear.  It didn't.  By now this is just old news.  Then she moved on to point number 2- the insurance company is currently investigating the statement I made to Dr. G about having symptoms in February.  Turns out, insurance companies can boot you off their policies if they feel that you have symptoms that should have been checked out prior to coming on board with their company.  Well golly gee, if I knew that irregular vaginal bleeding (I thought it was a period that had popped up from stress) and some abdominal cramping (again normal for me because I carry my anxiety in my stomach) was going to be symptomatic of cervical cancer, I probably would have done something about it when I had ROCKSTAR INSURANCE.  Grrr.  <deep breath>

Anywho, none of this was really news to me.  I have now been educated about total disclosures with doctors though.  If you're not really sure of the date, it's best to say the symptoms started that very day. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic).  That way there's never a question, right?

Moving on, Dr. L's MA (medical assistant) was quite a delight as well.  She totally ripped me a new one for not bringing along my 'Bag-it'.  The Bag-it is a three-ring binder that is put together by a foundation who's head is a cancer survivor.  In the binder you have places to put business cards, calendars to track appointments, places for notes & extra pockets to put additional information you get.  I didn't bring it because I'm still 5% in denial and keep pushing all the info into a corner in my house.  Yes, I know this isn't effective, but we all cope differently.  I let her slap my wrist and then we laughed about my hot mess of a doctor rotation.

Dr. L came in then and talked to be about the process of brachytherapy.  A rod will be inserted into the vagina and then up into the uterus.  It then has two drum like parts that will sit snug against the cervix.  These parts are all connected by a narrow straw-like tube that will aid in the delivery of the radiation.  This is a localized treatment to get at the cancer, without blowing out my bladder and rectal area.  Sounds like a spa-day right?   After the discussion of what the side effects may be he handed me a hospital gown and said he'd be back in a minute.

Coach's eyebrows raised when I was on the table, complete with gown on my lap, within a matter of seconds.  Yeah, it's like a day job for me now.  The tips are crappy, but the company is always interesting.  Dr. L returned with V (the MA) and he pulled yet another duck from the drawer,  but his office is fancy and has individually wrapped ducks.  Oo la la!  He slathered it in lubricant and then I said, "Shall I assume the position?"  V swallowed her gum, and Coach smirked.  Dr. L.......no response.

Well, what can you do?  Clearly Radiology Oncologists have had their sense of humor radioactively removed.  Either that or they've damaged the humorous part of their brains by placing their noggins too close to the radioactive body parts of their patients.

I asked him nicely not to rotate the speculum, to which he acquiesced.  The exam was complete and then he informed me that our first appointment would be October 5th.  I got dressed, he handed me two scripts for pain killers (which I probably won't fill until absolutely necessary) and we were finished.

Coach and I stopped for lunch and ran into a football buddy of his that he hasn't seen in 12 years.  Super crazy, but really great!  He and his wife were one of my favorite parts of Coach's college career, so it was really good to see him.

Incidentally, the U of U plays ASU this weekend.  I'm hoping the U kicks their butt.  Not because I don't enjoy living in AZ, but mostly because well......GO UTES!