Okay, I have my Rice Krispies in me, so let’s see what else we have to cover here. If you need to catch up, scroll down for parts 1 & 2.
The neurology team has been by a few times, specifically the oncology neurologist. They’re interested both in the spots I’m seeing and some of my more interesting pre-cancer history. They’ve done all kinds of neurology tests and tricks (spell “world” backwards) and at some point I’m supposed to be getting an EEG. Yesterday, the nurse stopped by at 1:30 and said I’d be having the exam in a few minutes. Since Barb was here, I had her take the laptop and various other stealables back to her office. The EEG never happened. I was going bonkers by the time the dinner trays got here. At that point, I was ready to refuse to go – they can make me wait, but they can’t make me miss food. Luckily for them, they didn’t show up.
So theoretically today I’ll be getting an EEG. We’ll see. I’m also supposed to be seeing a retina doctor at some point today as well. This should be interesting.
Let’s see, what else is happening with me? The cough is still there, though getting a little better. Previously, I would cough when I changed positions (lying to sitting, sitting to standing, etc), laughed or talked for too long. Now it just happens at random. I’m having occasional headaches, pounding like migraines, but not as consistently there. Like, I’ll feel okay just lying there, but if I sit up or cough, WHAMMO!
They did half of a sputum sample test on me the other day. Respiratory comes down and makes you breath in some noxious vapors for half an hour. These vapors make your lungs produce some mucous, which you can then spit up into a cup for them. Lovely, right? This is to see if I have PCP pneumonia, the big ugly one that affects people with suppressed immune systems. It’s one of the main things that historically kills AIDS patients, for example.
So the test itself is performed twice, two mornings in a row. However, the second day was the day after my kidney biopsy and the docs all thought it would be a bad idea to intentionally make me cough and hack for an hour. They called off the second day, so I don’t know if we’ll get half the results, or if we just have to do the whole thing again. We’ll see.
Okay, I know there’s a lot more that’s been happening, but it’s not coming to me right now. I’ll just have to sit and ponder a bit as I wait again for an EEG. In the meantime, know that my condition has improved greatly and everyone is still astounded at how healthy I look.
So, I’ve got that going for me.