Hurry up and wait.

Yesterday did not turn into anything I expected it to be. My first doctor’s appointment was for 8:15. This one was with Dr. Cancer. And for once it was filled with nothing but unequivocal good news. My bone marrow biopsy is now declared officially “OK”. It is “hyperactive”, but they are now theorizing that this is because my spleen is enlarged, due to the liver failure. Even with my medical training I continue to be amazed at what a little line of dominos our organs are. Affect one, and it radiates out to affect other organs.

My next appointment wasn’t until 10:45, with Dr. Primary. I live too far away to simply go home and come back to that area, so I had almost two hours to kill. I went to a local McDonald’s, got an iced tea, a large orange juice, and a dry muffin (about the only safe choices there, and the English Muffin still has an incredible amount of sodium in it) and set up shop in the back corner, making those items last as long as I could while reading “Slant” by Greg Bear. This is when I discovered I’d forgotten to bring my reading glasses.

Keep in mind there is nothing wrong with my eyes. It’s just that my arms are getting too short.

Shortly after 10:00 I could no longer fake that I had any food left in front of me, and drove the block and a half to Dr. Primary’s. Sometimes, if luck is with you, they take you early if you arrive early, and I guess I was feeling lucky. I checked in, sat down, and commenced my arms-straight-out-holding-a-book-in-front-of-me exercise. I was deeply engrossed with my book when I heard a familiar voice checking in at the front desk.

It might have been a familiar voice, but I still did a true double-take when I realized who it was … the ex! Turns out he is having some not insignificant medical problems himself (although, were it a contest, I’d still win in The Best, The Most Perplexing, and The Most Life-Threatening categories). He was there to see another doctor in the practice that he’d been referred to. We ended up sitting together while we waited and catching up on things. He was called at 11:00 for his 11:00 appointment. I, of course, was still sitting in the waiting room.

At 11:20 he came back out from his appointment. I was still waiting. So he sat down and kept me company again for a while longer. At about 11:45 my doctor’s nurse came over to explain that Dr. Primary been called over to the emergency room (it’s literally just across the street from her office) and appointments were very backed up. The ex made his good-byes at this point, while we were asked to decide whether we wanted to continue waiting or if we wanted to reschedule. I was the only one who elected to continue waiting. After all, this was the appointment I was *supposed* to have had the prior week, and I was getting tired of transporting the chilled hepatitis vaccine back and forth from my home. Those blasted vaccine vials are going to start demanding frequent flier milage if they go on many more trips.

I was finally seen at about 1:15. Again, my doctor took a lot of time with me, and didn’t rush me in the least. I explained to her that I’d gotten my orientation packet from The Big City Hospital for my liver transplant, and that they wanted all sorts of test results faxed to them by October 7th. Since I’d only gotten the packet on September 19th, that wasn’t giving me a lot of time to get things accomplished. The item that worried me most was the gyn exam. It takes months around here to schedule a gyn exam and mammogram, and they wanted the *results* by October 7th?!!!! Dr. Primary said she’d do it herself on Monday (ordinarily her day off) and she also swung the mammogram for next Friday for me. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I’ll mention it now. I love my doctors.

After everything that needed to be attended to was, I finally left the doctor’s office at 2:00. I was supposed to have stopped by my place of work at 1:00, so I called and explained what happened. I got there by 2:45, which wasn’t a bad piece of driving, if I say so myself.

I arrived, and they had me sit down in the commons area of our department. I was surprised that so many people came over to check and see how things were going. It was almost getting to be a party atmosphere, with so many people around. I was too dense to realize that it was a sort of party until my boss’s secretary (one of the most genuinely nice people to ever grace the face of this planet) came out with a gift bag and a pile of cards for me. The entire department had taken a collection and gotten me $60 in gift certificates to a local book store, and another $60 in gift certificates to Blockbuster Video. To say I am humbled is a gross understatement.

I wanted to write about the upcoming liver transplant orientation day I have to go to, and about looking into applying for Social Security benefits and about plans for this weekend, but this entry is already too long. That will give me ammo for future entries though.