Another Day at the Office 11/28/05

Well, we got there early and stayed late. The waiting room at the Charlton building desk L-A was a bit more crowded today than yesterday. It was just about standing room only. The line waiting to check in stretched the length of the waiting room, about 30 feet. That was going in. About an hour later, after I had gotten my blood work done and the growth factor injection, the line was over twice that long! I asked someone why the patient population seemed so much larger now in the icy, snowy, holiday season than back in August. I should have known the answer. Many of the patients have met their insurance deductibles and are trying to get medical treatment on this year's insurance dollar. Next year it will cost them when they will have to start paying the deductible all over again. So, if you are planning a trip to Mayo clinic and want to come when the patient population is low, plan your trip in January and bring your snow shoes with you.

One of the blood tests they did today gave them the amount of CD34 protein in my blood. The quantity of CD34 is directly proportional to the number of stem cells. Ideally, the amount of CD34 would be greater than 10. Mine today was a 5. That means I will be getting another injection of growth factor tomorrow morning rather than beginning the stem cell collection. I may have to go several more days before the CD34 number comes up to a 10.

The last appointment on the list today was the psychologist. They tell me all the cancer patients see the psychologist as part of their treatment. I think that is a pretty good idea because there are times when the psychiatric profession can lend some positive support. Not to mention weeding out the paranoid sczyphrenics with delusions of grandeur like me ;)

Also, the Urology department worked me over pretty good today. I am supposed to meet with the Urologist Thursday to find out the results.

We were also told my potassium level was a touch low and that I needed to eat a baked potato tonight. We used that as a "reason" to go to the local steak house and have a steak and baked potato - ha.

The temperature dropped quite a bit today. It is drizzly and cold outside. We may have another blanket of snow in the morning. Stay tuned for further developments.