Hanging in there.

Perhaps I’m hanging by my neck. But I’m still hanging in there, and I guess some days that’s all that matters.

I can’t decide if the neck-arm thing is feeling a little better, or if I’m just getting used to it. At this point I’m happy enough with either option, though.

I was apparently more messed up Monday than I realized. I was so hellbent to get into my primary physician’s office that I completely forgot about my cardiologist appointment at 2:30 that afternoon. I completely missed it – didn’t even think to call to explain that I had bigger problems than a rapid heart rate at the moment. They called Tuesday asking what happened, and I rescheduled for a couple of weeks from now.

I finally got tired of waiting for the transplant center to get in touch with me about my bloodwork (from two weeks ago) and so I called them to ask if anyone’s looked at it yet. I had a very confusing five minute phone call with the girl who answered:

Me: Hi, it’s Salamander. I was just calling to verify that you got my bloodwork from the ninth. Nobody’s called me with the results yet.

Her: Let me check. That’s “Salamander” with an “S”, right?

Me: Uh huh.

Her: OK, just checking now.

Me: Uh huh.

Her: Still checking. I have you on the computer, but the file won’t open. February ninth, right?

Me: Uh huh.

Her: Yeah, OK, we got it. Everything looks fine.

Me: OK, well I need to know when you want me to get the next set of bloodwork done.

Her: Well I see here that you’re scheduled to come in in May.

Me: Yes, that’s for a full exam. Won’t you need bloodwork before then?

Her: Well, we have you scheduled for May, so that should be fine.

Me: It’s normal for someone who got their transplant less than a year ago to go three months without bloodwork?

Her: Well, that’s what you’ve been doing. Oh, wait, I see you’ve been getting bloodwork done every two weeks.

Me: Yes, they’ve wanted to keep an eye on my creatinine. It’s been a little high since around Christmas. But you say it’s normal now?

Her: Creatinine? Hmmm … that was a little high on your latest bloodwork. Let me see if anyone made any notations here. [pause] Perhaps I ought to refer this to one of the doctors. Your phone number is ***-***-****?

Me: No, that’s my home number. You can reach me at ***-***-**** ext *** instead.

Her: Oh, OK, we have that one listed too. I’ll have someone call you back.

I put my life in the hands of these people?

I’ve got more to say, but this has been a lot of typing, which really bothers my arm at the moment. I’ll be lurking about, but there won’t be too many comments from me until this either gets a little better or until I get so frustrated that I can’t make comments that I damn the pain and go ahead and type anyhow.