My Medical Week

It started Monday morning with a bone survey - 28 x-rays of every bone in my body - and an MRI. The IV the tech put in my left hand caused a lot of puffiness and discoloration that has not quite gone away yet.

On Tuesday the only medical thing was getting a prescription refilled before I went to the Ice House to knit.

Wednesday I went to the Ophthalmologist in Mayfield at 10 am. No vision exam this time, just an examination of my eyeballs. The pressure is good - no glaucoma. The cataracts continue to grow slowly, so it will be a few more years before Dr Williams will need to remove them. There is thinning of the cornea, but that is not unusual with the shape of my eyes - I've been near-sighted since I was a kid. He wants me to come back in a year.

Since my eyes were dilated, I didn't want to drive for a while. There is a nice sitting area by the elevator in the Medical Office Building, so I sat there for a couple of hours and knitted. I had started a scarf after I signed in to Dr Williams office, so I continued working on it. 32 stitches, tiny checks pattern, alternating squares of two stitches by two rows. It lies flat and is reversible, both of which make it perfect for scarves. By the time I got home Wednesday afternoon, I had worked fifteen inches. I enjoyed sitting there knitting and watching the people come and go. But I didn't hear any of them speaking of Michaelangelo. One young woman did talk to me for a few minutes about my knitting. I invited her to join us at the Ice House on Tuesday mornings.

When I left there, I drove to Paducah for a 3 pm appointment with a gastroenterologist. It took me longer than usual, because my eyes weren't back to normal yet, so I didn't go over 50 mph. When the woman at the Cancer Group asked me last week if I had a preference for gastroenterologists, I said I didn't. She told me that the only one I had heard of (we go to church together and his granddaughter is a friend of Lexi's) has retired. One of my first friends in Mayfield is a nurse practitioner and has been working for him for several years, so I wondered where she was working now. Since Lynn and I no longer go to church together (when St Martin's in Mayfield was closed, she transferred to St John's in Murray and I transferred to Grace in Paducah), we don't see each other often. I was delighted when I was called back to the examining room, to find Lynn waiting for me. In addition to the medical history stuff, we spent a few minutes talking about our families. I will be scheduled for a colonoscopy sometime soon. They have to get permission from Dr Winkler to take me off Coumadin for five days before the procedure.

Thursday was my oncology appointment. Dr Winkler was out this week, so I saw Dr Conkright instead. He had the results of the x-rays and MRI from Monday. Nothing alarming or unexpected. He said that when I go back in two weeks, Dr Winkler will probably talk to me about maintenance doses of either VelCade or Revlimid. I'm not sure which one I prefer. I'm trying to figure out which side effects I'd rather put up with.

And finally on Friday I went to the orthopaedic surgeon for a follow-up on my hip replacement. He had his technician x-ray my entire pelvis, so he could see if there was arthritis in my other hip. There isn't. He wants me to come back in about a year and a half. When I checked out, I told the girl that I wouldn't make an appointment now, but would just try to remember that I need to go back around my 70th birthday. Can I be that close to 70?

Knitting

Alyssa called me from the Fall Festival at Lexi's school Thursday night. As soon as they walked in, Lexi's best friend ran up to them and the two little girls went off together, so Alyssa sat and talked to various people from the school. One of them told her that they'd be glad to have some hand knit mittens, hats and scarves to give to kids who need them. So I'm working on a few, and Alyssa is too. She called today and asked for a couple more sizes of needles, some sport-weight yarn and the I-cord maker. She had mentioned earlier that she didn't find any mitten patterns, so I also took her several books of all mittens. I need to get a list of the books she has of mine.