appointment
clinic appointment
kidney transplant
long wait times
lupus
multiple myeloma
oncologist
transplant
More Waiting
April 6, 2011
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Can stress cause nose bleeds? Because once I managed to toss and turn myself to exhaustion and finally fell asleep last night, I was awoken at around 3am to the feeling of my nose bleeding. Luckily I had a box of tissue near by, but it’s always difficult when your nose is bleeding and you can’t readily get up because you’re attached to a dialysis machine. I managed to get the bleeding to slow down after about 45 minutes. I heard my sister walking by my door so I asked her to grab me some ice. It stopped just long enough for me to wake up to the “END UF” alarm on my dialysis machine. I’m glad that it stopped long enough for me to sleep because I simply cannot sleep with tissue in my nose.
I went to my oncology appointment. I must say that I wasn’t happy with the amount of time I had to wait. My appointment time was 1:30. At 2:30, I asked when I’d be seen. I was told that there were still two people in front of me. Huh?? How can I have two people ahead of me when my appointment was supposed to be an hour ago??
Anyhow, long story short, the oncologist, who, by the way, is a lovely lady, told me that more information is needed. So she ordered more blood tests and I will see her back in 3 weeks. Kinda frustrating as I want to know what’s going on. She explained to me that some people might have up to 5% protein in the blood/bone marrow…but I happen to have 15%. The x-rays I did were normal. She is concerned that if I do have myeloma but it’s the type that does not need to be treated right away (let’s say, not for another 10 years or so), having the transplant and taking autoimmune drugs might be detrimental as the immune system helps the body fight off cancer. This could cause problems in the future. She wasn’t saying anything specific, she was just giving me a number of scenarios.
What I don’t understand is…I’m ALREADY immunosuppressed, so whether I get a transplant or not, I’m always going to be immunosuppressed due to the Lupus. I did ask questions and make statements but I did not think of that. It was obviously a concern for me and I’ll have to write that down and take it with me to our next appointment depending, of course, on what she has to say.
So it will be a bit more waiting and wondering for me. I went into that appointment and thought of all the kind and encouraging words that many have shared on my blog. The power of the prayers directed towards me is absolutely incredible. I am amazed and humbled by the love I have and am receiving.
Let’s keep it going. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll have read some of the things that I have gone through…and I’m here to talk (blog-hehe) about it.
This too shall pass…
