Friday, October 16, 2015

Add two appointments, take away one

On Monday, I have a 9:45 a.m. check-up with the tongue doctor (more formally known as head and neck oncologist Laura Goguen), followed by a check-in at 1 with Melissa. It was in the back of my mind to try to move my Wednesday photopheresis to the same day at 3, but by the time I got around to it they were all booked.

They are very busy. It's not that much fun, but apparently it's popular.

Melissa said I could just skip the week's ECP rather than returning on Wednesday. I asked if the cumulative benefits go from week-to-week or more over an extended period of time, and since she said the latter, I'm not going to worry about it.

I only see Dr. Goguen once a year now. At my last visit I asked Dr. Alyea if I could skip those visits and just let him and my dentist take over, but he said, no, she can see things the other people can't. Both he and the dentist haven't seen anything suspicious, but when Dr. Goguen's office canceled an appointment that I had a couple of months ago – and couldn't reschedule until next week – I got a little concerned in light of what happened to Ann almost a year ago after she developed a squamous cell carcinoma on her tongue.

But since two doctors have seen it and said it looks fine, I'm not going to worry about that either. Besides, it's too nice outside.

I'm actually relieved that they couldn't tack on the ECP on Monday. It would have been a super-long day. I'm getting picked up at 7:45 a.m. and wouldn't be back until 9. It will be long enough as it is; I didn't book the ride back until 3 p.m. because I never know how long I'll have to wait for Melissa and Dr. Alyea. And I wouldn't want them to leave without me if I said 2 and then I was late.

Getting home at 5 will be a long enough day, but at least it will be light. Hopefully I won't have any stories to tell about my ride. But I wouldn't count on that.

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