Busy week!

Unfortunately, I had no information at the end of the day yesterday to share, so I skipped an update. Here's a new Tuesday update, with lots more info. At the rate it's been going today, I could get a call when I'm typing this with even more information.
I was woken up this morning at 7:30 by a phone call from Josh. Dr Chhabra was trying to get a hold of me and had apparently gotten my number wrong, so he called Josh instead. I was not too delighted to have been woken up that way (OK, I was already awake. I just didn't want to get out of bed or do anything yet). I called Dr Chhabra who was really only calling to see if my PET scan had been scheduled yesterday. I'd been waiting for the lovely Sabine, his nurse, to call me but I never heard from her, so I told him that no, it hadn't been scheduled. He said he'd talked to Dr. Modi on Friday evening after I spoke with her and she said she'd do it. Dr. Chhabra put me on hold, then came back with Sabine on a 3-way call. These were my instructions: 1. Call Dr. Modi when her office opens. 2. Call Sabine at 9:30. 3. Call Dr Chhabra at 11:30. I promptly curled up on the couch and went back to sleep.
I called Dr Modi after she got in only to be told that Dr. Chhabra had said nothing to her about the PET/CT. She called him, then called me back to tell me that she still couldn't submit the pre-certification paperwork until my biopsy was complete. Argh! Luckily, within 30 minutes, the phone rang and it was Gloria, Dr Chhabra's much more pleasant nurse/assistant person with 4 giant long pre-certification numbers for the PET scan. Success! I'm not quite sure how that happened. She originally wanted to send me all the way downtown to Washington Hospital Center, but I wanted to stick with the radiology clinic I've been using, so she went to call and switch things with the insurance. When she finally got that done, I tried calling the CRA office in Silver Spring, which apparently doesn't exist. There is another CRA office slightly farther away that could get me in on Friday, which I didn't think would be soon enough for Dr Chhabra. He said it would be fine, so on Friday afternoon I get my PET scan. I have a huge list of instructions and things I need to avoid eating and doing Thursday and Friday AM.
So, while all that was going on, Gloria was also supposed to be working on the MUGA scan per-cert. Last I talked to her, she was planning on calling the insurance. I got a call from Denise, Dr Modi's awesome receptionist, to schedule another cardiac echo (ultrasound). I told her I'd heard of no such plans, but she said Dr Modi had just called to tell her to schedule it with me, so I'm assuming it's just a change in plans. Maybe instead of the MUGA? I'll ask the next Dr I talk to.
So, here's the schedule so far:
Wednesday AM: pulmonary function test
Thurs AM: cardiac echo
Thurs PM: surgery post-op/ consult for mediport
Fri PM: PET/CT, then go to Dr Chhabra's office.

I am really happy that Washington Hospital Center was mentioned today because I checked that hospital out and I think I'm going to insist that I be sent there if I need to be inpatient. The two local hospitals don't really have my vote of confidence and my local friends who work in hospitals have not been too impressed. Washington Hospital Center is still pretty close, has a large cancer center and just seems to be a much nicer facility. I'm glad I know it's there. I did try calling UMD but they won't even make an appointment until I send everything there (all records, radiology results, biopsy slides) so they apparently don't give you as "immediate access" to their facility as their website claims. I'm not giving up on them (or even JHH), but since WHC seems to be a good, local option, I think I'll just stick with them for now.

The current plan for chemo is to start ASAP. To Dr Chhabra, this seems to mean the instant the PET scan is done. Last I talked to his office, it sounds like he wants to have me admitted Saturday and get things underway. The minor conflict is Josh's cousin's engagement party Saturday evening. We've been looking forward to the party for quite awhile now and I'd be really sad to miss it. I think I might try to bargain with Dr Chhabra to see we can't just wait until Monday so I can go to the party as a last hurrah, morale booster. It'll be good for my mental health and as this point, I'm not sure what difference a day makes. I will, of course, head to the hospital on Fri or Sat if I really need to, but a little fun before my life explodes would be nice.

Other than that, I'm still hanging in there. I am still battling with my fever. I'm still winning. It did go too high for about 20min yesterday evening, but tylenol made it drop pretty quickly. My back hurts a bit and I'm just tired and blah feeling. I'm taking it easy though, so I'm managing pretty well. I'm still well enough to do some laundry, make some turkey bone broth and rescue a tadpole that Bombshell apparently decided was ready to hatch. She let herself out of her cage and I had no idea until I heard broken glass from the other side of the house. I found a shattered petri dish on the floor in the frog room, managed to get the iguana back to her cage and scoop up the little tadpole who had hatched when his home fell to pieces. He seems to be fine and was swimming happily, so all is well.

I'll end here now, but if I find out more, I'll be back!