A visit with Dr. A

I spent some time with Dr. A today. He seems eager to take me on as his full time patient. In other words, he seems to want to absorb me away from the SCCA.

Somehow I feel he understands the SCCA's philosophy of "follow the program" and he knows that once you're out of the program, you sort of wander around not knowing exactly where you are. I guess he's BTDT.

I have an appointment with Dr. B at the SCCA on Wednesday. I'll see how that goes. If I'm being put out to pasture, I'll be happy to be have Dr. A as my primary. The guy is good, caring, concerned. He's also a much better "all around" doctor with solutions to non-cancer issues.

Anyway, Dr. A did some extensive labs last week. It looks like my M-spike, the magic "cancer number" has dropped again. If true, this is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, Ed and I are concerned about the consistency between two labs at the different facilities. We prefer to err on the side of caution. Either way, the number is low and it shows positive results from the auto transplant. Now we just need to keep the number down.

One thing I asked Dr. A to test was my testosterone levels. I think I could have told him the test results before he got the little numbers back, but he was surprised to see how low the numbers were. Tomorrow I pick up a scrip that will hopefully return part of my biochemistry to normal levels of masculinity.

I think some of you are surprised how candid I am in this blog, but it's my intent to help everyone understand the complexity of the cancer balancing act. This is not a simple head cold. One major issue impacts various major systems, and those systems impact minor systems, and those minor systems sometimes get big enough to impact the major systems again.

Cancer patients and their caregivers balance spinning plates. You've seen this act before. Every once in a while, somebody has to go back down the line and spin a plate again when it starts wobbling. Well, I'm just telling you which of my plates wobble.

So, if you're a cancer patient, don't feel like you're strange when there are side-effects. Treat them as part of the disease. Resolve them as part of your cure. If you're a caregiver, appreciate that your patient/loved one might feel like he/she is falling apart. Be supportive. Spin those plates together.

(4000)