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!