A little more notice please?

I’m pretty annoyed right now. I was on my way out the door to see an ENT about my cough when my phone rang. My ENT is on medical leave so I had been scheduled to see his partner. The woman on the phone said the partner wouldn’t see me because I wasn’t his patient. If this is an office rule, how do the schedulers not know this?

So I’m waiting for my PCP’s office to call me back with another referral. If the new doctor can’t get me in within the next week or so, I’ll call my new oncologist and go see someone in Orlando.

The speech therapist finally came out on Tuesday. I was excited that she was going to let me try eating, but when she did, I discovered I couldn’t swallow anything. My oncologist said she could see some esophagitis (inflammation of the esophagus) on my PET scan and that is likely the problem. She thinks working with the speech therapist and doing the exercises she gave me will help me get back to normal.

I also need to do another modified barium swallow test to see where the hang up is. I’m waiting for that to be scheduled. If it doesn’t happen quickly, I’m going to dump my current speech therapist and again go to Orlando. It’s a long drive, but I’m done just waiting for people to get around to helping me. If I have to make a few long trips to get my life back, so be it.

Speaking of getting my life back, I decided to get back on the treadmill this week to hopefully relieve some of the fatigue. I’ve managed to do about 20 minutes a day at a little bit slower rate than what I was doing before I found out I was ill. Next week, I’ll bump it up to 30 minutes and try to gradually increase my speed until I get back to where I was before.

I’m guessing a lot of my fatigue is caused by my medications. The cough syrup causes drowsiness, but without it, I literally choke. I keep trying to not take the anti-nausea medication, which also causes drowsiness, but when I skip it I usually vomit, which causes more throat pain. The pain medication also makes me drowsy, so I’ve been supplementing with ibuprofen so I don’t have to take as much. If I can get rid of the cough and the tube, I should be able to get off the meds, so that’s what I’m working on. In the meantime, I’ll just have to nap some throughout the day.

I’ve gone back to work part time, which makes me feel good. Most of my clients were happy to have me back. One of them had to replace me because I was gone too lone, but he said he would try to get me back on when he has an opening. That’s all I can ask for right now.

In the meantime, if  you’d like to help me knock out these medical bills, please go to https://www.youcaring.com/julie-mears-henry-495041. Thanks to all who have contributed!