Happy New Year's Eve!

 Well, this past week was a challenge.

I saw the PA at the oncology clinic, and got word that my Doc has officially retired.  He did not go to the VA, or anywhere else, apparently.

What a loss.  They do not make doctors like him anymore.  It's heart breaking.

I was VERY fortunate to have him as my doctor for all of these years.

So, since the interim doc has gone back to his department, there IS NO DOCTOR at the breast oncology department right now!

The upshot for me is that I don't have to see a doctor again before my next treatment.  I just need to get my labs drawn, and go for my next treatment on Jan. 18th.  One less appointment is FINE with me!

Then, on the 29th and 30th, I have every scan imaginable scheduled.  The interim doc ordered all of these before he went back to his department (I think his specialty is gastro cancers).  I have no idea why he ordered both CT and MRI of the same areas.

This two days of CT, two MRIs, bone scan, and a cardiac ultrasound - taking place a week after my first treatment of the year - will result, no doubt, in my full annual deductible, and out of pocket, coming due all at once. 

 $3500.00 in bills to start out 2024.

This does not please me.  I messaged the billing department to ask them about the Enhertu copay assistance program, and, as expected, did not get a reply.

What else didn't please me was that they scheduled the full day of tests on the 29th in such an order that I was looking at having to fast for ELEVEN HOURS.  

They put the NON fasting test (the bone scan) in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY, without even thinking about the fact that I would have to fast from 5 am until 4 pm.  

No.  Just. NO!  

SO, I started out using the messaging tool on the patient portal.  Back and forth, back and forth.... NO Progress.  

The nurse who was responding to me could NOT understand that the bone scan does NOT require fasting.  You'd think they would know!! 

Finally, a supervisor messaged me with the phone number for central scheduling.  I called, asked if we can move the NON fasting test to either the beginning, or the end, of this arduous day.

2 minutes later, it was done. 

NOW, I can eat a good breakfast, get my bone scan first, then fast/wait for 3 hours before the tests that require fasting.

Anyway, the visit with the PA, and my treatment on Thursday, both went well... AND, after three failed attempts (by phone)  to get scheduling to change my next treatment appointment to the afternoon, it took approximately 15 seconds to get it changed when I was there in person. 

I finally got to see the nurse I knew back at the very first clinic.  It was great to see him, and he was also heart broken about things not working out with Doc.  He, too, was really excited that Doc was going to be at OU Health.

We both said we wished we knew what really happened.  OH well.  Maybe we will some day.

I also had my former nurse come talk to us during my treatment, so that was nice!

There will be a new doctor in the breast oncology center by the time I have my test results visit on the afternoon of Jan. 30th.

In other news, the Kittenea family was scheduled to go to the adoption intake center on Thursday at 11 am.  

After them being here for all of their previous appointments.  After them being here, in our yard/on our patio/using our shelters, 24/7 -since AUGUST- they chose that day to disappear.  

They were nowhere to be found.

They did not appear when their favorite food was put out, they did not come when called, or when the bell on their toy was jingled.  Gone.  

Dave called and made a new appointment, and off we went to my chemo appointment.

The kittens were back when we got home around 3:30.  (rolling my eyes)

Their new appointment was set for the next day at 2 in the afternoon. It was the Friday before New Year's weekend, so that was the latest appointment available. 

They disappeared again, so we started going outside, every few minutes, an hour before the appointment (we were both working from home).

Finally, Sammie, Socks (the kitten daddy), and LITTLE JOE showed up.  SO, we got Joe into the carrier, and Dave took him to the adoption intake appointment by himself.

Poor baby... he was so afraid to be separated from his sisters.  BUT, they acknowledged that Joe was absolutely ready for adoption, and they took him immediately into the program! SUCCESS!

We went to visit him yesterday while we were out doing errands, to give him some reassurance.  He nestled into our arms as we each held him, and even put his nose in my ear as he was purring furiously.  He was clearly very happy to see us.

SO... now, we face the challenge of getting the girls over there next week.  

Hopefully, we can get a late afternoon appointment (latest available is 4 pm), and will just have to wait and see if they come back in time from wherever it is they are going now, during the day.

They were here most of the day yesterday, which was Saturday, and the adoption intake office was closed.  

It's like they KNOW.  

What they don't know is that we are really needing to get them off of the streets NOW, because, thanks to all of our work, they trust people.  

BUT- There are mean people everywhere-one of whom, in our neighborhood, traps cats, and takes them out to the country to die, or to be eaten by coyotes.  

That's probably what has happened to all of the ones we have known, and who we have tamed/socialized, who have simply vanished.   

Remember Silver? 

Yeah.  She probably fell victim to that evil human.

There are also news stories every week, lately,  about packs of roaming dogs. 

These dogs attack people, and also kill smaller dogs, and cats, for fun.   

This past summer, we saw a pack killing a smaller dog in the middle of the street we were driving down. It was horrible.

There are also plenty of people who poison cats, and run over them on purpose, and even shoot them.

The weather is also changing to winter at last, too.  It will be very cold at night all next week.

SO, since I will have the car on Tuesday to go to work, we will try for next Wednesday.

They need to show up for their intake appointment!!!  It is critically important that this last step of our long, and expensive, process be completed successfully!

Anyway, have a happy New Year celebration, if you celebrate.  We are just doing our usual stay at home stuff.  Appetizers and watching "Harvey" tonight, and black eyed pea and Virginia ham soup tomorrow.

May 2024 go easy on all of us. 

Merry Christmas Eve

 The ham my brother sent weighs FIFTEEN POUNDS.

SO far, it looks like we will have three guests at our table. I hope they bring big containers to take left-over ham home with them!

It is about time to get the ham going.  It barely fits in my big roasting pan.  It will boil all day long, and the only other project I have for cooking is the spoon bread.

One guest is bringing the vegetable dish, and another is bringing the potato dish. Both of them are bringing sweets as well.

Dave still has his chores to finish, but my day should be pretty relaxed.

But first, cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast!

My winter solstice feast was a complete success.  I planned my menu, and my prep, perfectly.  The food was absolutely delicious, and I was NOT exhausted by the time we sat down to eat!

It's been SO NICE to be off work for three days so far, and knowing that we have off through Tuesday!  I've been able to pace myself with cleaning and tidying, instead of having to do it all on Christmas Eve.

In other news, I got a clean bill of dental health last week.

My visit with the PA (no doctor available) is on Tuesday, and my treatment is Thursday.  Next week is also the Kittenea kittens appointment for their second set of shots, and their trip to the Humane Society to be entered into the adoption program.

We will surely miss them, as we have fallen love with them, but this is what we have been working toward for months.

I had hoped that they would take them on the same day as their shots (Tuesday), because I could go along to take them.... but no.  They won't take them until Thursday morning, and I have to work.  Plus, my appointment with the PA is at 9:45 am, and their shots are at 8:30, so there would not be time, anyway.

Those details just didn't work out.  

SO, I will have to say good bye to them as we load them into the carrier. Thankfully, I will be working from home next week.

Anyway, I hope that you, gentle Reader, have a lovely day, whether or not you are celebrating anything.

Count down!

 I finally got my "Festivus" letter written, and cards sent out, this past week.

The tree isn't up yet, but that's mainly Dave's doing.  It's so hard for him to complete tasks sometimes.  Depression is a weight on him.  

He's always excited and satisfied when he gets up, and gets things done, but he has a very hard time with the getting up part.

I am so glad he is going to therapy, though, and have hopes that he will conquer certain aspects of his depression and anxiety through the hard work he is doing in therapy.

Anyway, he has promised to get out to the shed today, and to pull out the Yule boxes, and set up the tree for me.

I have my basic menu planned for my Yule feast. You may recall that I have a great deal of fun preparing a "medieval" style feast for Winter Solstice.  This year, I am going to be cooking quail, and HOPEFULLY using my new firepit.

However, the forecast keeps increasing chances for rain JUST ON THAT DAY, so I am not sure I will be able to do the outdoor cooking part.

I succeeded in getting the day off, and the day after that, though.  Since my office is then closed on Monday and Tuesday next week, I am looking at a "SIX day weekend" next week!

My brother has provided a full sized Virginia Ham, and our friends from Switzerland will be joining us on December 24th.  This will be the first full sized, bone in ham we have had since 2019.

Another friend and her significant other may join us as well.  I sure hope so, as we will have a LOT of ham to send home with everyone!

The kittens have been treated for fleas, now, and continue to thrive, and be happy.  Their appointment with the Humane Society is ten days from today.

Their fur is so lush and soft from being outside 100% of the time, and they RUN to us any time either of us goes outside.

One of the tasks Dave accomplished yesterday was to go out and get a fresh bale of straw, and to re-do the shelters that the kittens and their momma use at night.

The shelters are now full of fresh straw that they can burrow into to stay warm.  It was below freezing last night, so his timing on that task was good.

We have "regulars" who show up at meal time, now.  The male cat from across the street, who is definitely the daddy of the striped kittens, comes every day.  He hangs out with Sammie and the kids much of the day.  He MIGHT even be staying here at night... not sure.

He will be our next TNR, hopefully.

He's pretty tame around Dave, so he MIGHT allow himself to be picked up an put into a carrier... Not sure.  

AND, the best news, is that our eldest feral, Luke, has been coming around for breakfast.  We had not seen him all summer, and were afraid that he had met his demise elsewhere.  He is 10 years old, after all.

But this past week, he started showing up every morning, and hanging around for a while every day.

Next week, the only appointment I have is my bi-annual dental cleaning and check up.

Then, the week after Christmas, I see the PA (not the doctor--who may be gone now, who knows?) on Tuesday, and then my treatment is Thursday.

Hopefully, I will get them to fix the scheduling of my January treatment.  Maybe it's just best to do that sort of thing in person, since the phone calls obviously accomplished absolutely nothing.

Today, I have a gathering with my international spiritual community, and hope to get those festive decorations put up!  It should be a pretty lazy day, for the most part.

Have a good week!

Well....

 It seems my doc may not have been completely honest with me when he called me.

He wasn't going to give it a chance.... He's already gone.

When his medical assistant didn't check me in on Tuesday, for the doctor visit, I knew in my gut that he was already gone.

Jamie, my former nurse, came to visit during treatment on Wednesday, and confirmed.  She said he is probably going to practice with the VA hospital.

And no one knows if the "interim" doctor is staying, or going.  SO, I will just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I think my steroid dosage was finally adjusted, as the reaction was less severe this time.....and the interim doc has ordered every scan imaginable for the end of January.  

I have to go two days in a row to get them all done.

This will impact me by producing a HUGE bill at the beginning of the year, so I am pretty uncomfortable about that, but I suppose it needs to happen.

He feels that I need all of the scans every three months, instead of just the heart ultrasound.  

For 9 years, we have done them every six months.

The doctor said he's not sure that the spot in my liver is cancer, or something else, and has ordered a specialized kind of MRI, among the usual CT, the bone scan, and the heart ultrasound.

I freaking HATE MRIs, but, again, whatever.

Since the last round of tests all looked so good, I am hoping that these will look better still.

The appointments this past week were extremely frustrating.  We had to wait 90 minutes to see the doctor for 5 minutes. 

Then, on treatment day, we sat and waited for another hour and a half before they started to actually put anything in the IV, because the doctor never signed off on the treatment after I saw him the day before.  

They had to track him down, and have him approve everything, before we could start.

In the future, I am requesting that there be a day in between my doctor appointment and my treatment, so that maybe that won't happen again!

Then, there were issues with scheduling my next treatments at the time that I want them, instead of whenever they want me to come.  

I work full time, have been doing this every three weeks, all year, and need the appointments to be in the afternoons, not in the middle of the morning.

Those issues still aren't ironed out, after three phone calls, one of which I was left on hold for 20 minutes before I gave up.

I really don't like this new place, but it is what it is.

Maybe the MRI will determine that we can suspend treatment, and give me a break for a while.  

Like I mentioned, this month marks one year of going to treatment every three weeks, with the exception of the little break we took when the heart damage was discovered.

In other news, the kittens are doing great after their shots! 

They were SO GOOD for the vet, and he said they are in perfect health, and that we have done a fantastic job of socializing them.

He gave us flea meds to put on them, and we'll do that today some time.

That first visit to the vet used up almost all of our fund raiser money, though, as they mis-quoted over the phone when Dave investigated the costs.  Ugh.

These babies are just so stout, and soft and fluffy, and love to be petted, and to get in my lap when I sit on the steps!

Our indoor cats are getting used to their $80 flea collars, and the fleas are finally gone.  

Annabel is getting used to being back on kitty Prozac, and, hopefully, she will stop overgrooming, and gain some of her weight back. 

Having the kittens go away will help her a lot, too.  She gets very agitated when they are close to the doors, or the windows, which they almost always are. 

I am grateful that there are no appointments this coming week, and that I can possibly start getting into the holiday spirit a little bit.

Have a good week!

More kitten and cat stuff

 This past week, Dave successfully wrangled the kittens into carriers, and took them to the Humane Society's spay/neuter clinic on Tuesday morning.

They only accept 10 TNR cases per day, and our kittens were numbers eight, nine, and ten!  There was ONE car in front of Dave when he got there, and they had SEVEN TNR cats!!!  THAT's dedication!

My guess is that they have a network of people who trap feral cats, and then one volunteer takes them to the clinic.

Anyway, the kittens came through with flying colors, and are doing well.  The littlest one, who is black and white, turned out to be a boy.

We admit to never having looked closely at his... anatomy... and assumed that all three were girls, because of his diminutive size.

All three are so sweet, and they swarm around our feet with purrs and meeps when we are outside, begging for attention and love.

Next up, the Humane Society WILL finally consider taking them into the adoption program now, BUT, they're so big that they have to be seen by a vet, and have the full round of shots FIRST, once again, at our expense.

We had hoped to avoid this, by having SOMEONE...ANYONE come and take them before we got to this point. 

So, Dave has an appointment set up for Tuesday, this time, to take them to a rescue that also has a clinic, for their exams and first shots.  Then, they have to go back for round two in three weeks.

After that, we can discuss taking them for the adoption program.

As a result, I have started an on line fund raiser (check your email if you are not on Facebook).  We are almost to our goal of $500.00

This money will repay us for the spay and neuter surgeries, and will cover the cost of all three kittens having to go to the vet twice, and to have two rounds of vaccinations, over the next three weeks.

It will also cover part of the $65 per month that we spend on food just for them.

And, speaking of unexpected expenses, top all of this off with Annabel not acting normal, and losing weight, and almost $300.00 to get her to the vet this past week, too!

The fund raiser is NOT going toward her care, but that MORE than utterly eliminated our gift buying budget for the holidays this year.  Especially when the other unexpected pet care expense is added to that! 

Fortunately, Annabel is in PERFECT health, except for markers in her blood work that indicate chronic anxiety.  

SO, she is going back on kitty prozac.  We gave this to her, years ago, when Pete got so much bigger than her, and she started to lick her belly bald.

Her belly is still bald, and it's worse now, with the baldness including the inner part of her back legs, because the fleas were so bad this year.

That was the OTHER unexpected pet care expense we have experienced, this fall, as well.  

Two rounds of the topical flea treatments didn't work, so we finally bought the really expensive flea collars.  THOSE are working, but they cost almost $200.00 right before Thanksgiving.
UGH!!

Anyway...between the lack of fleas, and the addition of her anti-anxiety medication, hopefully, some of her fur will grow back, poor baby.  And, hopefully, she will gain her weight back as well.

We are not only not spending much of anything on gifts this year, we did an inventory of the freezer, and are spending as little as possible on groceries for a while, since that's our biggest weekly expense.

Yesterday, I pulled a year-old, vacuum packed round steak out of the freezer, and made a version of pot roast with it.  It was delicious!

In other news, I had an odd phone call this past week from my oncologist.  It was odd, because it was a personal call.... 

He asked how I was feeling about the new place, and if I knew that one of the old nurses from the very first clinic in 2015, was working there.

He then told me that "things were not as they seemed" when he accepted the position, and that he is considering leaving.

Yeah.

He went on to say that he wants me to stay.  SO, he is basically breaking up with me, HAHA!  

The Stephenson Cancer Center at University of Oklahoma Health is actually a cutting edge facility, and I am fortunate to be in their system now.

We know this.... As impersonal as it seems by comparison to where I came from, it's still the best option for me at this stage of my disease process. 

And, as difficult as it was to hear about his struggles, and as much as I feel awful for him, IF he leaves (which, I assume, he will), I will remain.

Doc said he's still giving it a chance, but he wanted me to know what was going on, since I am his longest-lived patient with stage 4.

So it was a very full week.

I have my appointment with the "interim" doctor next week.  He was supposed to have been leaving (he is not a breast oncologist, but specializes in a different type of cancer), but now, we do not know if that is still the case.

Time will tell, I guess.

My treatment is then on Wednesday, and on we go.

Have a good week!