Gyn onc appt. was fine today

I went for my checkup with the gyn onc this afternoon. It's rainy and cool here today and parking downtown was nuts. I drove up and down and up and down the entire 7 or 8 floors of the parking garage twice before finally finding a space. Luckily I gave myself and extra 15 minutes above and beyond what I normally give myself to get there, just in case.

Even once I got to the office I had a long wait, including a long wait sitting in the exam room (which meant that the paper on the exam table had become permanently attached to my buttocks by the time the dr. came and asked me to slide down for the exam). The nurse took my blood pressure and asked if I was on medication. I didn't even want to know what the number was, between the ibuprofen and the pain and being in that office I know it was high.

I could hear the dr. talking to a patient in his office (not his actual words, just his loud voice) so I assume he was giving someone some bad news as it took a while. His nurse (not the one who comes in during the exam, but the one who calls with test results and is the "go to" nurse for all kinds of things) came in to talk to me. She doesn't work in the exam area or even on that floor but she always comes in to see me when I come in to say hi and see how I'm doing. She's the main reason that I stay there, I really like her a lot and she's my main point of contact for anything I need to know or get done. I told her about my back pain and that the rad onc thought it wasn't cancer related and we talked about the scan results and about vacations and med oncs.

So he finally comes in, with some young dr., which is good, I always find his bedside manner improves greatly when he's got a student/resident or whatever with him. He says everything's great, says my scan in negative (which the rad onc kind of said too, I guess as far as the onc's are concerned whatever disease is still left isn't a concern at this point) does a quick pelvic, asks me when I'm getting my mammogram (made my appt. this morning actually for mid-November) and tells me that we don't want to use the horses till we need them (huh?). He meant that we don't want to do chemo or hormonal treatments till we need them, but the horse thing was pretty funny. I also talked to him about my med onc leaving town and asked who he thought I should see. He recommended the med onc that my old med onc had put on the form letter, said she's very good and that she trained under the med onc I saw for my 2nd opinion at Fox Chase. So, I'll make an appt. and meet her and see what I think. I forgot to mention the back pain.

That was pretty much it, I go back in 4 months, which is about a month after I get my next PET/CT scan and see my rad onc. This November/December is going to be pretty stressful with a mammogram a few days before my 50th birthday, a PET/CT scan & rad onc appt. right after Thanksgiving and a gyn onc appt. right before Xmas. If I ever do get rid of this back pain it will probably come right back! I sometimes wonder if I should be on some kind of drugs, almost everyone I know who is going through this cancer crap is on an anti-depressant and/or anti anxiety meds (the anti-anxiety meds are taken as needed with some people needing them daily). I have neither and sometimes wonder if I would have all this back pain crap if I was. I don't know, in general I hate taking meds, especially ones that have side effects, but sometimes they are necessary. Probably time to see a gp and start dealing with the rest of my health. I just have to decide who to see, a new dr. or my old one who I haven't seen in years and who I'm not particularly fond of. It's just always hard to make another dr. appt. when I'm tired of the rounds of oncologists & other drs. I have to see every few months. Bleh! And you all know how great I am at making decisions about which dr. I should see (not!)