Follow-up craziness

The paresthesia issue is getting better every day. I still notice it a little bit, but it's not painful like it was earlier in the week.
I saw Dr. Sharma on wednesday for my 3mo. follow-up. Josh didn't have a full day of work, so he was able to come along with me. I'd been putting off that appointment because I didn't want to deal with that office at all. The appointment went exactly as I could have predicted, down to the crazy people in the parking garage. We waited about 30 minutes after my appointment time before they took me back and drew some blood. We talked with Dr. Sharma for about 2 minutes and that was it. He wants me to have a PET scan in the next few weeks. I hate the prep for a PET and have read that a CT would be ok for follow-up so I asked if we could do that instead. He really wanted to do the PET and gave me the referral and I left with plans to check with Dr. Ampey and see what he thought. Besides the PET, Dr. Sharma didn't really ask how I was doing or do an exam or anything. His main comment was that my hair is growing back. I mentioned the paresthesia as well as the mystery fever illness and he didn't have much to say besides that "that shouldn't happen."

Chris from Dr. Ampey's office called me on Friday to see how I was doing and to ask how the appointment with Dr. Sharma went. I explained to her about the PET and how I'd prefer to do a CT because the prep is easier and I also explained my frustration with the lack of care from Dr Sharma's office. She seemed pretty certain that a PET would be best (and later called back to say that Dr Ampey was insistent that it would be best too), so I guess I'll be having the PET. I think after this one though, I'm going to insist on CTs for followup. I'm basing my decision off the current recommended NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network) guidelines for Hodgkin's, so it's not like I'm just not wanting the PET because the prep is no fun. I will, however, try my hardest to get out of drinking the barium because it makes me sick and I'm going to insist that I have the first appointment of the day since it doesn't matter how soon I get in for the scan. That way I won't have an entire day of fasting which makes everything worse.

I spent awhile on the phone with Chris talking about my frustrations with Dr Sharma's office and she just didn't seem to believe a lot of what I was telling her, because compared the Dr Ampey's office, it's such a poorly run office (I wish I had realized that back at the beginning of my treatment!). She couldn't seem to grasp that they don't have an office nurse like her and that I can't just "call their nurse." I'm going to have the PET results sent to Dr Ampey as well and I think I'll just schedule a follow-up with them to talk about it since I'm sure all I'll get from Dr. Sharma is "the results were good." It's also frustrating that there seems to be a fair bit of inter-office politics involved with Chris and Dr. Ampey not wanting to step on toes at Dr. Sharma's. I'd be happy if I could just deal with Dr Ampey and Dr Modi and be done with it.