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OK so first, here’s a lovely interview I did with my friend and fellow author Andrea Green Burton!
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Oh my goodness folks. It’s been Doctor Month around here, but I am so glad to be done. Done done DOOOOOONE!
A picture of the New Resort!
Behold, the NEW RESORT.
My new clinic is beneath the walkway bridge you see in this photo on the left. Hi clinic! :)
So, last week I had my first round of Yearly Transplant Testing at the new resort. This was not here, it was at another building slightly off campus. (OSU is very very large)
Here’s what I had done:
PFTs—spirometry (aka, basic PFTs where we check how much lung function I have), a gas diffusion test (which tells you how various gasses diffuse in my lungs and such) and another test called “the box” (where you sit…in a box), and to be honest I’m not entirely sure what that does. I want to say it measures tidal volume or something like that, but I only do it once a year, so….
I met a new respiratory tech (RTs). She was nice. At the time I didn’t know this, but now I know that my PFTs and chest X-rays and blood work will all be happening at this building, so I ‘ll probably get very familiar with the RTs, infusion nurses (because blood work=port access=infusion clinic!), and radiologists here! The building is pretty nice, and it has food, so that’s a good thing, and free parking.
Anyway, PFTs were fine/good. So yay there.
The Six Minute Walk, which I was sort of dreading. Basically a course of a certain length in a hallway is marked and you just walk around the two cones that mark the ends, doing laps for six minutes while your oxygen saturation (sats) are checked via a pulse ox. I was i the normal range, hallelujah!!!! I was really nervous about this test because, you know, haven’t really been getting out all that much….
Then I had a CT scan, which was fine except for two things—one, they had me move on my stomach for some of them, which was uncomfy because I’m a stomach breather and so I couldn’t really hold my breath that well or that long and they kept doing them back to back, so I couldn’t really catch my breath, and two, they just shoved me back out in the hospital without letting me stop to put my bra back on. WEIRD.
So I had to go into the bathroom and, you know, get dressed again. (I had my shirt on, just not my bra. So, weird.)
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OK so after this, I went to another building for the cardiology tests. I was really early—we were booking it today—but once they adjusted to a patient being early, they took me early. I had an ECHO which I loathe with all my being because it HURTS having someone push a transducer INTO YOUR RIBS. For a half hour!
But we ended the day with an EKG, which was fine. Both these tests were fine. SO YAY WINNING AT LIFE.
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And then I went and got lunch at a French cafe and sketched! (Yes, I wore a mask. There was no one in the dining room. Everyone was out on the patio or in the little bar because it was a really nice day, so I had the whole dining room to myself and I sketched and had quiche lorraine and a chocolate croissant and it was LIFE.)
See? NO ONE AROUND. Also social distancing markers!!!!
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OK so, that was Friday, which was also my daddy’s birthday. And then mom’s birthday was on Monday. So here are my cute parents:
and their 41st wedding anniversary is on Tuesday! And that’s also my grandma’s NINETIETH birthday!!!!!
(here’s grandma)
At my sister’s wedding last year in Estes Park, CO.
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OK so lots of parties.
Anyway, yesterday, I had my first appointment at the new lung transplant clinic (pictured above!). It was my same doctor, which was great, and my new coordinator is really nice, so I think we’ll get along just great.
The clinic is….weird. Actually, OSU itself is sort of weird, in that it has these programs, but then it doesn’t have ancillary services that they need. Like, they have a ton of immunocompromised patients, because they have a huge cancer center and transplant section, but there’s no special waiting room for us in the ER.
So, yeah. Why.
Also, the waiting room is basically in the hospital’s atrium, which also makes me go…..why. That doesn’t seem awesome. It’s also incredibly noisy so it makes it very hard for the hearing impaired like moi!
ANYWAY.
Eventually I will adjust to these things.
So the way it works now is I will still be seen every three months. Clinics are in the afternoon, so a few days before my appointment I’ll go to the other offices in the AM for blood draws, PFTs, and chest x-rays (CXRs). Then I have clinic. And we’ll go from there. I do sort of like not having both on the same day.
I will also meet at least one other doctor in the clinic so that someone else has met me and is familiar with all my specialness! :)
(See: CF. Menopause. CI that counter indicates MRIs. Port. Hearing loss! Anemia! Weird diabetes!)
We asked questions, we got answers, and Dad went with me too so he has also met the new folk and seen the clinic.
Also, there is plentiful parking at this location! YAY!!!!! (and it’s free for patients! DOUBLE YAY!)
So now, I’m done with doctor appointments until like, September, and I rejoice in this, and will now take a long weekend to recover from all the madness of the past month! :)