In their hearts humans plan their course , but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
I don’t know what I have looked forward to more: getting the covid Vaccine on January 1 of 2021, or getting my surgery date for breast cancer. September 28, 2021. It’s later than I wanted but at least I have a date. Now I need to go to multiple appointments, and stay Covid free until then. My biggest appointment day is September 8 where I have a phone meeting with a case manager from CIGNA at 10, An oncology appointment at 11 at Mission Hospital, preop for bloodwork and EKG at 1:00 in Irvine, and plastic surgery appointment at 4:00 in Newport Beach.
I have started wearing an N95 mask again all the time I am out. Covid is spreading and if I get sick it will delay everything.
Appointments have been a big part of my journey. Some appointments have taken up to 1 hour just to set up. Some doctors have multiple offices that don’t communicate with each other making the whole system difficult to navigate. Each office has their own set of paperwork to fill out which I am supposed to print out and fill out before I go and wait some more in the office. I now have a case manager and 3 nurse navigators because I am going to different hospitals. I can also talk to a social worker if I need one. My case manager asked me what my stress level is and I said 4/10 mostly because of all of these appointments on top of everything else that I need to do. I also have a few other minor medical things going on too. I have been working every Sunday because I need to take so much time off during the week. I have to have copies of my medical records and MRI/lab/ultrasound CD’s to take to different offices. Once I left them at a new office and had to make a special trip to retrieve them. Anytime I think it is too much I remember how blessed I am to have an excellent medical team and way to treat this cancer.
I had an appointment with the radiology oncologist for the new hospital for intra operative radiation (IORT). I learned that they are doing a study to compare IORT with external/conventional radiation and that I could be a part of study that will continue until 2060! To date they have performed 1500 cases of IORT and there are 3 doctors that do it. The other hospital has done 10 of the brachytherapy which is similar to IROT but over 5 days instead of during surgery for usually 30 min. They might not be able to do it safely for me so I will just need to wait and see.
Work is busy too. I just started a new job in June which has switched computer systems twice with 4 different log ins for different systems and 2 different buildings/campuses. I also pick up extra hours at times at 2 different buildings from where I used to work. Keeping every thing straight is a challenge to say the least. Still, I am grateful that I can work and feel healthy.
Lots of people are encouraging me and praying for me. God has everything in his control. I am learning to trust God more and more each day.
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