Hair and health

Hair: I have had to start cutting off fuzzy stuff - huh! I'm actually quite surprised at how fast it has grown back.

Health: I did a very brave thing - well for me, the wuss, it was brave. I drove myself to my first appointment with an oncologist, here in Jerusalem. AND I only got a teensy bit lost and was able to correct myself without too much delay. Here is the hospital.

 I actually found a parking place. Then I found a directory that I could actually read so I only had to ask a couple of people how to get to Dr. Segal's office! Then the fun began. I took the elevator from the 4th floor [entrance] up to the 7th - oncology.

I checked in at the desk, she sent me back down to where I had just come from - to pay the bill.

Did that.

Then I returned to the 7th floor and she sent me around the corner to the doctor's office. I checked in there and then waited. - That's normal, right??

After awhile the receptionist comes out and asks me if I'm a returning patient - how I got directed to Dr. Segal, etc. Turns out I needed to pay MORE because it was a private visit not a follow up from treatment in their hospital. They wanted me to come back the next day but I think I looked so pitiful that she and the doctor took pity on me and let me keep my appointment. He opened a record for me, did a physical exam - everything is fine!! Then he ordered a blood test and had the receptionist call the breast clinic to schedule a mammogram. Fine. BEFORE I got the blood test they sent me back down to the 4th floor to pay more on my bill then return to the 7th floor to get my blood drawn.

The phlebotomist spoke no English. :) He kept trying to take blood from my right arm, which is a no/no. He finally shrugged his shoulders and started on my left arm. Then he kept asking me something and I kept telling him "I only speak English", which annoys him. Then he says "infusion". I don't know if he means have I had one, which arm do you get it in, do I need one? He finds some guy out in the hall who speaks English and has him come in to explain what he wants. The phlebotomist thinks, logically, that I'm there for a blood test before having chemo - so he wants to prepare the infusion as well. Boy am I grateful for the nice guy in the hall!!!!

Anyway, I get my blood drawn, get the usual cotton with tape on my arm, and he doesn't hand me anything or say anything else, so I leave. 

Skip ahead one day. The hospital calls. Something is wrong with my blood test. PANIC!!! Actually, the lab messed up my blood test and "could I please come back in the following day?" Oh, and by the way, "you didn't pay for the blood test so you need to pay". I'm thrilled!!!!

So, now it is Wednesday. I have my mammogram appointment at the breast clinic AND I'm supposed to go back to the hospital and get my blood drawn again. No problem - I found the hospital. Kent can tell me how to get to the clinic, I'll write it down - I'll be fine.

Well, Kent knows my navigation disability - so he says he is going to come with me. "No", I say, "you've been sick in bed for 5 days - no way!" Well, he was finally feeling better that morning, he really wanted to get out of the apartment, and he really didn't want me getting lost - so he came. We didn't get lost.

Now, this place already has a file on me because they are the ones who did the biopsy last year and diagnosed my cancer. I got right in, they did the mammogram and  . . . . . 2 hours later I finally see the doctor. He does a very thorough ultrasound and a second mammogram on my right side - didn't think that was possible. ;)

I wait another 30 or 40 minutes and finally get the paper work and films to take back to Dr. Segal. Good news - everything looks great!!

I really am grateful that they are so thorough and concientious but I was so frustrated at how long it had taken and that Kent had been sitting around in the car or wandering the streets all that time. I told him I wasn't going to do the blood test until another day.  Nope, he drove us to the hospital.

I'm getting tired just telling all this - I hope you've long ago quit reading if you got bored!!!

Anyway - go to the 7th floor - doctor Segal's receptionist. She has no idea what I'm talking about. She calls the lab and they explain it to her. Doctor Segal is out sick. Receptionist asks 2 other doctors if they can draw my blood. "No". Finds a nurse - who speaks English - yay!!!. She takes my blood, explains where I have to go to pay, and then where to go to turn in the blood sample.

Back down to the 4th floor. 30 minutes later I leave the cashier - who has had to enter all kinds of things into the computer and took lots of extra time because she had to look up each individual code for each individual test to be done on my blood.

No one at the blood bank window. I go in and finally get someone's attention. She keeps saying something to me in Hebrew. Not sure what. Then a nice man happens to come in and he says "just leave it there on the table." I'm free!

I drive us home - no getting lost! It is now 3:30 pm - we left the apartment at 10:30. No lunch. Kent is actually in a GOOD mood and thanks me for "letting" him come. Me - I'm a curmudgeon!