Fingers do bleed scary amounts. They made a big deal about the broken bone, but like toes all they really do is tape it to the next digit to immobilize it.

Personally I'd love to make a geeky version of that.

And you should! That sounds fun.

I am contemplating the question of 50 ways to leave your oncologist. I have nothing in particular against him as an oncologist, but he is no longer working at the office closest to me, which is 14 easy interstate miles away. He's at offices that are at 27 and 36 more difficult miles away. That wouldn't be a deal breaker, but he's been increasingly hard to get answers from. He used to respond quickly to e-mail, but he's the department head and seems to be stretched too thin these days.

The kicker is that he send an e-mail May 30 saying my petscan showed some progression, so we needed to look at new treatment options. This is a scary information for a person with advanced cancer. The e-mail said we'd talk that week. After I hadn't heard from him for two weeks, I e-mailed him. Nothing. Finally, I e-mailed his nurse practitioner who forwarded my e-mail to him. I heard from him today.

In the meantime, the nurse I see every week for a shot suggested I might want to change, since my doctor was going to be so much further away. I looked at the doctors available there and made an appointment with a woman who has a decent resume and three board certifications.

I'm trying to compose an e-mail back to my oncologist that says, "Yes, I'd like to start the new treatment ASAP and BTW, I've made an appointment with someone who I hope will be more responsive."

"Yes, I'd like to start the new treatment ASAP and BTW, I've made an appointment with someone who I hope will be more responsive."

I'd phrase it "I've made an appointment with someone who has fewer distractions from prompt patient communication" or something. It acknowledges he's busy but also reinforces that his busyness is hurting patients.

All the mojo for the treatment.

In addition to the other reasons, sometimes a new set of eyes on your records may result in new ideas that the current Oncologist hasn't considered.

To expand on the new provider issue, this comes to mind because of a friend. Paul had a stroke a few years ago and had just recently started making progress with walking more than he had in years. Family was surprised and encouraged, then last week he had another mini-stroke. When in the hospital with new sets of eyes they decided to start him on a couple of new therapies in light of his recent progress. If he hadn't gone to the hospital he would have just stayed doing the same thing for who knows how long. New eyes, new ideas.

Ginger, I think most docs totally understand that sort of thing. That's really far away and inconvenient!!

I need to clean and pack and get organized. But I'm sleepy. And still a little achy.

Also, just got a bill from DHL, and I have no idea why, so I need to call them and find out.

But mostly want to nap.

Ugh, Ginger. I wish I had more than that, but I don't think anything I can say would make any of this better. I hope the new oncologist is the best thing possible for you.

Hil, have you ordered anything from overseas lately? It may be customs and duty fees. It seems to be hit or miss whether a particular shipment is examined for valuation and duty purposes. It's hit or miss if I get them when I order something internationally.

Hil, have you ordered anything from overseas lately? It may be customs and duty fees. It seems to be hit or miss whether a particular shipment is examined for valuation and duty purposes. It's hit or miss if I get them when I order something internationally.

Nope. Last time I did was March.

I called. This bill was from a collection agency, not from DHL themselves. It was from the thing I ordered in March. I'm positive that I never got a bill from DHL, and I definitely never got anything saying that they'd send it to a collection agency, but I'll pay it.