UGH. Turns out my primary care doc isn't in today, so the clinic was holding the fax from the hospital for her to look at on Monday. They suggested I message her on Spruce (the app they use to communicate with patients) and I said I had but hadn't heard anything, so the front desk was going to send her another message.

This is a clinic that has like 5 or 6 doctors/NPs on staff, but they can't just have another doctor send in the referral--she has to see it. I don't understand this at all. All I want to do is A) talk to someone who understands what's going on and can kind of give me parameters to help me cope until I know more, and B) get the first available biopsy appointment so I can get definite information and start any treatment needed ASAP. Why do they make this so hard?

{{{Susan}}} I hope your doctor gets back to you soon. My mom just had a small mass removed after her follow up biopsy was cancerous, and they got it all. Just as a reminder that early detection is effective because there are good established treatments. In hopes that that helps.

Timelies all!

{{{Susan}}}

It snowed again today. Mr. S had the day off from school, which makes 3 out of 4 days this week. Roads were awful this morning, as not much plowing occurred. Getting to work was an adventure.

Didn’t help that I got less than 6 hours of sleep last night. I went to the house to do laundry, but there was so much that I had to do two loads. I didn’t get back to the room until after 12.

I was able to talk to the care navigator from Fred Hutch cancer center who was in my chart as having contacted my PCP. A big part of what was freaking me out was that they were already involving the Hutch folks, but it turned out that one of this nurse's Other Duties As Assigned is to coordinate when a patient who doesn't get their primary care at one of the UWMC clinics needs extra testing. (One of her comments was, "You seem like a really lovely person, but if all goes well we'll never need to talk again.") She said that at this point the most likely outcomes were "false alarm" and "cancer caught so early that the prognosis will be excellent." Which is what some of y'all, not to mention Dylan, were telling me, but it's just more soothing coming from a nurse at a cancer center!

And as I was typing this message, my PCP messaged me back to saying she's having one of the doctors who's on site today sign off on the referral, and the clinic will let me know as soon as that's done. So I'm feeling less immediate anxiety, but I'd still love to faceplant into a box of Belgian chocolate and comfort re-read Bujold books and Murderbot until I can get the biopsy over with and get results.

I’m glad someone finally got back with you, Susan. And I hope the biopsy shows it to be nothing much.

Great swim trunks, Laura!

I’m sorry about the work woes, smonster.

I’m trying to decide if I want to stay with my book group. I’ve been in it for decades, and a couple of other long timers are friends. But a number of people in the group are immunocompromised, so we’ve switched to being entirely on Zoom. Which I support—yay tech solutions! But I am so zoomed out. I work remotely, and there are days when I have six zoom meetings, each an hour or more long. I don’t want to log back on a couple of hours later to stare at a zoom screen again. I mentioned that the amount of zoom that day had my eyes hurting at last night’s meeting, and there were chirpy suggestions about cutting down my work zoom time. Did I mention that most people in the book group are retired? Yeah, if I’m cutting zoom time it’s not going to be with my paying gig.

Totally get this, Calli. Would it be too disruptive to see them for. I don't know, every third book or something?(I've been in some low-key ones where you could do that, and some that are too "Roberts.y" for lack of a better expression.)

Susan, is this your Dylan? [link]

Ugh, Susan, I hate this thing where they send you the raw results before you can get them interpreted. We are not experts in these things! I'm glad folks got back to you and am hoping for the best.

Susan, is this your Dylan?

It is indeed!

Ultrasound/biopsy appointment made...for Feb. 1. Which feels like a long time to wait--certainly too long for a regimen of nothing but junk food and comfort rereads in the interim--but I guess it is what it is.

I prescribe junk food and comfort rereads as needed for the interim. I'm really glad you got to speak to some knowledgeable. Keep reminding yourself that the expert says that it is mostly likely either a false alarm or something caught very early. Be gentle with yourself.