Back to Friday night.
I was preparing to do battle with the HMO over the PET scan.
I felt my neck stiffen.
My word room filled with “stiff neckked pride”, flown in from my KJV
childhood.
When I went to bed I felt a large hot lump on my left neck
shoulder line. I didn’t sleep much.
Saturday, the lump still there, I discussed the situation with the duty nurse,
which resulted in our going to Silverdale’s urgent care, which then sent us to
Harrison Emergency.
They did x-ray and CT scan and decided my lymph nodes were
swelling, perhaps with blood. Having
determined there was no emergency (except I should get off coumadin asap) I was advised to wait and try to see my
Oncologist Monday or as soon as possible.
I was given a shot of vitamin K before I left. The theory was that I might need a biopsy or
surgery and they didn’t want my thin runny blood then. That brings us to Saturday night.
On Sunday Morning Terrill called and informed me of Mom’s
death. Sunday was mainly preoccupied
with family.
On Monday, the swelling was still present, but the
Oncologist was not. The best we could do
was to see the NP on Tuesday, which we did.
While with the NP the oncologist came in to have a look. They decided there was really nothing to be
done except wait. The swelling did seem
to be going down. In a month or so we’d
do another CT scan, if the PET scan is still denied.
Now it is Wednesday, and my blood work is better, IE: sugars
way down, and pressure normal. It seems
stopping coumadin has made my blood numbers better. Now I’ll see if I can stop the blood pressure
medicine, metoprolol. Stopping the
allopurinol would be good too.
In my layman’s mind, the breast pain, the neck swellings,
the clogged Eustachion tubes, are all related but the AMA doesn’t seem to think
so. So it goes.
