If at first you don't succeed, ask and ask again

I learned this as a reporter: If you don't get the answer you want, just keep asking the same question in different days.

I put this technique to use when asking Melissa if I could return to 5 mgs. of prednisone after taking 7.5 for a couple months when I was throwing up. The throwing up has stopped, but I am still on the higher dose. I wrote her an e-mail a while back asking if I could decrease, and she said to wait until my next appointment. That was when my appointment was April 8, but now it has been moved to April 22 to coincide with an appointment that I have with Dr. Goguen to check on my tongue.

It was good of them to move the appointment to cut down on my running back and forth, but I really don't want to wait that long to go down on the prednisone. The reason is that the higher dose seems to have contributed to an increase of the tiny white thingies on my hands, which erupt because the prednisone lowers my immune system.  True confession: I pick at them, and that makes me feel like a crazy person. I hate to look at them. I like wearing rings, and I don't even want to put them on. It's small potatoes, of course, but that doesn't stop it from being upsetting.

So today I paged Melissa and put the same question to her in light of the fact that my appointment is now a month away. And she said sure, go ahead and try it. Hooray! If I start throwing up again, then of course I will have to go back up.

My appointment will be two days after Ben and Meghan's wedding. So exciting that it is getting so close. I was offered the opportunity to pay for makeup and for my hair to be blown dry, and at first I said no because it seemed like a lot of money. I figured my hair always looks the same, and I hardly wear any makeup. Then Meghan said her mother is doing it, and it occurred to me that if I don't, I might look like I blew in from off the tennis court. So I said yes.

I told Melissa that maybe I'll leave the makeup on and show her the beautified me, and she said that sounded like a good idea.

It's nice to have healthcare professionals that you can talk to about things other than cancer.