Random Cancer Tidbits

Just thought I'd through out some tidbits that I may not have been sharing lately.

- I have a mammogram tomorrow. I was supposed to get it done before my 6 month checkup in February. I called last week to schedule it and they got me in now. It's only actually been 3 months and 12 days since my diagnosis. I suppose if you count September and February as entire months it would be 6 total, but this seems quick. I'm not sure if I should be nervous. I wouldn't expect them to see anything, they did remove my tumor after all, but I would imagine there is some scar tissue that would show up.
- While I'm happy I have insurance (and pretty good insurance at that), this is still an expensive process. I've been keeping good records and finally today called both my insurance company and the doctor's office to discuss some co-pay inconsistancies I've noticed. The good news: Apparently my doctor is also an internal medicine specialist and in the insurance world he also somehow qualifies in my insurance plan as a Primary care physician. Thus, my insurance only charges me the $20 co-pay when I see him, rather than the $40 specialist copay. Good for me, although I've already seen him for 6 official visits, so it still adds up. The bad news: Due to the fact that a nurse triages me (takes my temp, BP, etc) when I go to the office to get my blood drawn weekly, they charge me for an office visit. Because there is an office visit charge on my statement and not just lab work, I have to pay a copay of $19.14. I would have the option of going to a lab draw station (hospital, etc) to get the lab work done and faxed to the doctor to avoid this copay. However, from now on, I'll be getting Herceptin each time I have my CBC done, so will still need to go to the office and be charged this fee. To date, 7 times and counting.
- My 30 minute bag of Herceptin, Monday took about 2 hours to administer.
- My hair is starting to grow back. Mostly on my head. I've still only needed to shave my legs and armpits 2 or 3 times over this whole process. I'm not sure it's growing in thickly yet, but the hair on my head is getting longer.
- I got my period again. Only a 29 day cycle this time, which is actually shorter than my pre-chemo normal. I still don't think I ovulated (my temps were all over the place), but at least it's something.
- Grace doesn't like it when I wear a hat. The first thing she does if I come in with one of my caps on is try to pull it off my head. I try not to wear my wig around her, because I'm sure she'd pull it off too.

Well, that's all for now. Wish me luck tomorrow. Grace has a doctors appointment too. She's going to be checked to see if her ear infection is cleared up and that's she's ready for her surgery in a week. I can't believe it's that close, I'll have to write more about that later.