5/20/2013
Today we had an appointment at 11:20 am to get the results of my grandma's latest blood test. We were both a little nervous, but I tried to stay positive by saying that there is no reason to think that it could be bad news. After all, she's been doing the same things she has been doing so the results should continue to improve.
We went into the office, and checked in with the receptionist. She told us we could go on back, but before we had a chance, the nurse came to get us. She took us back to go through the routine stuff. She weighed my grandma, then sat us down in one of the rooms. While in there, she went through a list of questions with my grandma. Asking her if she has any headaches, is she still sweating, any tenderness or pain anywhere, is she sleeping alright, and a host of other general questions. The nurse then took her blood pressure which was 116 over 64. The nurse said it was perfect, and that it was probably better than her own. She put a little gadget on my grandma's finger to measure something. Not sure what it's for, but possibly measuring her pulse rate. Not sure. After all the initial general testing and questions, the nurse said that everything looked good and that the doctor would be in to talk to us soon.
We waited for a little while and the doctor came in. He sat down and told us that her numbers actually came up a little bit. That was kind of disappointing. I said, "I guess we're going to have to step it up". He said it wasn't a significant jump in the numbers but that it had come up a bit. It was 166 the last time we checked, and now it is 183.6. He also told us that her sodium level was really low. He said it was 124. He was telling us that it could be dangerous to have it that low, and if she has any problems take her to the emergency room. This was kind of a surprise because she has been fine, and she was fine. He said that these levels could cause fatigue, confusion and even seizures if it gets much lower. So I asked him, what can we do about that? He said that it would be something we need to discuss with her regular doctor. He said that it would probably require some medication, but he said, she doesn't want to take any medication. At this point, I am starting to get the vibe that he is kind of frustrated with us. Probably because we refused his drugs and we are actually getting good results. Who knows? He told us that we should probably refer back to her regular doctor because basically there is no reason for her to go see him. He told us that the insurance company see's that she is coming there, but that nothing is really happening. He told us that my grandma's regular doctor can check her numbers just like he can. I told him, that would be great. I looked at my grandma and said, "we really only come here to check your numbers anyway, so if your doctor can do this then there's no reason to come here anymore". By the way, we were under the impression that her regular doctor couldn't order those tests. So that's why we kept going to the oncologist. The first time we went and got the great news about her number dropping over 100 points, he told us that we really didn't need him, so we could just come back if we wanted to check her numbers. We really hadn't planned on going back, but my grandma had to have her thyroid tested and we were curious about where her numbers were. So we called the oncologist to order the test so we could find out. Happily, the number had dropped again. On that visit, the oncologist asked us to come back in May (which was yesterday's visit). Now he's telling us that we don't need to come back if she's not going to be taking any medication. He did throw in at the end, that he would be happy to see us here, but that there's really no reason for it. He definitely seemed to be more annoyed and frustrated with us or the situation. Again, I'm not sure, but that's the vibe I got, from the way he was talking to us.
Another issue he brought up was that he said she is retaining water. I'm not sure how he knows that because he didn't examine her or anything. After he brought that up, he asked if we noticed her stomach being swollen. I told him I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary for her. She told him she had a lot of fat, and he kind of smiled. Maybe she kind of broke the ice a bit. Anyway, he used his stethoscope to listen to her heart, and he was feeling her stomach at the same time. He didn't say anything about it. The only thing he said was that, we should limit her intake of water and fluids down to 2 liters or 1 and a half liters a day. He didn't explain why, just that that's what he would recommend.
He did tell us again about checking in with her regular doctor in the next couple of months about her sodium levels. Which is weird because he acted like it was dangerously low, and that she could end up in the emergency room if something drastic happens. Maybe he meant a couple of weeks, but I thought I heard him say a couple of months.
When we got home, I called her regular doctor, and left a message because of course, when we got home, it was their lunch time. Usually I hear back from the nurse around 4:30 or close to 5. So I waited and never heard back. The next morning when I got to my grandma's house, I called her doctor's office again, and had to leave another voice mail for the nurse. That was around 10:30 am. It is now 5:02 p.m. and I still have not heard anything back from her doctor's office.
Also when we got home, I decided to fill up her pill cases. She was on her last week of pills, so I thought I would get the other 3 weeks ready for her. When I went to get the other 3 cases, I noticed she hasn't been taking her ginger and turmeric pills. There was 1 case where she didn't take them Monday through Friday. The other 2 cases had at least 3 days each that she didn't take them. She doesn't like to take pills, but I think more than that, I think she gets distracted and forgets about them. She gets them out when we are about to eat lunch and puts them on her pill case. She usually takes one of them and takes the other one a little later. She has a weird thing about taking more than 1 pill at a time. So she thinks she will get back to it and forgets about it instead. When I saw that, it made me wonder if that's why her numbers came back up a little bit. She is missing those important supplements. So hopefully we can keep on top of it, and make sure she takes them.
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