Certainly not the most fun I've had at an appointment. I left a little annoyed.
I was supposed to have this appointment in early December. It would have been 6 months then, so it was about 8 months since my last one. Interestingly, it happened on World Cancer Day. I expected something special at the appointment. As I said on Twitter in the morning, I was hoping I'd get flowers and a cake:
Since most of you have been to an oncologist before, you can probably guess what happened. No flowers and no cake. In fact, after my last appointment, the office encouraged me to some early for a blood test. Of course, when I got to the blood draw station, they didn't have my paperwork. And when they called up the doctor's office, there was no one there who could give the authorization for it. So they sent me up to the doctor.
When I got there, the receptionist was waiting for me. As she checked me in, a nurse said to me, "Don't wander away." The receptionist said, "Looks like you're getting the royal treatment. Going in right away. It's the least we can do." I said I's been through worse things than not getting a blood test, but I appreciated the "royal treatment."
Of course, I didn't get the royal treatment at all. (And if I did get it, it was more William and Meghan than anything.)
I sat in the exam room for almost a full hour. I did my best to keep myself entertained. Back to Twitter:
I was annoyed. I knew I was feeling fine, no symptoms, no problems. I was going to be waiting a long time for a really fast appointment.
And that's what happened.
Dr. H was very apologetic when he came in. He was obviously in a rush, reading my digital file after he came in, instead of beforehand. Which was fine. At one point, he apologized for not remembering something about me.
"That's OK," I said. "I'm not very memorable. I like it that way."
He laughed. "Yes. It's good to not be memorable in a cancer hospital."
I relaxed a little. He asked if it was me who canceled the December appointment, or him. I said it was him, and he apologized again. I said I assumed he was at ASH. "You now what ASH is?" he said, surprised. I told him I read a lot. (I never let oncologists know how much I know.)
He talked a little bit about ASH. His assessment was that things were "incremental" this year -- no big news, just lots of little places where we are making progress.
He also said that, one thing he learned about Follicular Lymphoma this year was that we still don't know how to predict who will need treatment immediately, and who, like me, an watch and wait and then respond for 10 years to just Rituxan. And, unfortunately, there is no way to tell what my future will be, either.
But they'rw working on it, which is good. More big clinical trials are necessary, he thinks. With 1000 patients, maybe we can find some genetic markers that tell us which treatments will work. (So consider a clinical trial if you ever need treatment again -- though I hope you don't need it.)
A quick physical exam and a "You're doing great" and we were done.
He told me, again, that I could see him in a year if I wanted to. I told him 6 months was great. I'd miss him otherwise.
And then he told me to go do the blood work. No results from that yet. I assume it will be fine.
In all, about 3 hours out of my day, for a 10 minute conversation.
But I can't complain too much. It was another boring, not very memorable visit.
Just the way I like them.
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