It's time to be overwhelmed again

First things first. I called the paging operator yesterday before I left for SCCA to lodge a complaint about not getting a call back. I spoke with Patient Relations who will also pass this issue to the "Quality Liason and M.D. Coach" person. Dr. Calhoun did tell me that the paging operator would page the resident, who would page her and she would then call me. Obviously this did not happen and whether the fault lies with the operator or the resident, I do not know.

Dr. Calhoun determined that I have a mild infection. She put me on a 7-day course of Cipro and seems confident that this will clear things up. After that appointment, I had my blood drawn. By the time I was done, I was very late for my oncology appointment and ended up waiting almost an hour before I saw my oncologist.

Dr. Rodler and I spent a lot of time talking about what chemotherapy will entail and the different choices I have. There are not a lot of choices for women with early stage breast cancer, as far a chemo drugs go. I will most likely join one of the research studies we talked about. It's a Phase II, non-randomized trial, and I'm pretty comfortable with it. There are a lot of tests and appointments I have to do in the next 2 weeks though, including:

1. MUGA scan to check my heart pumping function
2. CT scan of chest and abdomen
3. Bone scan
4. Nutrition consult
5. Placement of a port-a-catheter. I will get this done on the day I start chemo.
6. Lab work

I also need to get a consult for a wig, which I think I can do at UWMC.

Is it any wonder I woke up at 2 am! At least I feel better, physically that is.

I hate being sick

I'm feeling pukey again. Plus I have the chills. No fever though, that we can tell, but we don't have a thermometer either. I'm leaving in 20 mins. for SCCA.

well, crap

I definitely have an infection going on. There is a spot in my incision (the axillary dissection site) that is red and infected and my entire breast is warm and pink and swollen. I have a call into Dr. Calhoun's nurse and I'm just waiting to hear back from her.

So this has been my morning so far:

-I got up at 5:00 and decided there is definitely something going on with my breast
-I took a shower
-I called the paging operator at 5:45. Now, both Dr. Calhoun and her nurse have informed me that Dr. Calhoun takes her own calls. I was instructed to call the paging operator and ask for her and she would be paged. However, when I called the paging operator this morning, I was told that she is not on call for herself and that Dr. Someone else is on call for her and he would be calling me back. Some resident, I assume. I explained that Dr. Calhoun told me that she takes her own calls, but the operator said no. Now, I wasn't going to have an argument with the paging operator. What pisses me off is the fact that it's 8:45 now and no one has called me back. I will be having a pointed discussion with Dr. Calhoun today when I see her, that's for sure.
-I cleaned the cat box and in the process, stepped in some cat puke and tracked it all around the kitchen before I realized what was going on. Luckily I wear Crocs slippers, so cleaning them was easy, but I was highly annoyed at the cats, not only for the puke, but they keep peeing outside the cat box and I'm changing the pad twice a day (I use puppy training pads all around the cat box).
-I got to work at 7:15 and my co-worker and friend who is also an RN took a look at my breast and agreed that I definitely have something going on
-I headed downstairs one floor for my first PT appointment at 7:30. My physical therapist is really wonderful and I'm very happy with her. She exclusively works with breast and gynecological cancer patients. We talked about my history and what the future plan is, but we did not do any therapy today. She also examined my breast and placed her own call to Dr. Calhoun's nurse.

Now, I am just waiting for the return phone call to find out what time they want me over there. Oddly enough, I feel much better today than I did yesterday. I did check my temperature last night and it was up a little bit at 98.9. I normall run low, about 97.7 or 97.8, so it's a little high for me. I don't feel that warm today though. I am starting to have some sharp pains in the axilla area, so I think this infection is starting to spread a bit.

That's it for now. More updates later.