Where we left off yesterday I was heading to the emergency at the hospital with a very sore throat wanting it just checked out and maybe get a prescription to get it fixed.
As usual, there was a bunch of others thinking the same thing as we were in the midst of flu season as well so the wait was long. Finally I got a doctor who looked at my throat and actually recommended an x-ray which was sort of unusual I thought but I figured he was being thorough. I also figure too while I was there I may as well get some bloodwork done remembering the scare I had in late Spring I detailed a few posts ago.
So the x-ray comes back good but when this guy gets my bloodwork he is sitting me down scaring the life out of me saying my bloodwork is really bad and that he wants to set me up with a doctor there to set me up for a bone marrow biopsy as soon as possible. He starts talking that he is scared I may have leukemia or something similar like he is baffled by these poor results. Soley said to me I better get this seen to now and not put this off any longer because this health issue is not going away no matter what it turns out to be. I had to agree because words like leukemia started being mentioned. Nothing really up to then was that scary but when someone mentions cancer it gets your attention.
He sent me home with Amoxycillin and a phone number to contact this doctor. We already had a family doctor an hour away but I called this guy because he was local and I thought if I needed to do more visits I would prefer to do them locally. After calling the doctor he mentioned he was expecting my call and to come in for an appointment set up for a couple of days later.
Meanwhile, I took a couple of days off work then returned but still had this sore throat. It took a second visit to emergency where I got another doctor who recommended a stronger dose of antibiotic called Clindamycin. Now I realized that my body needed more help in fighting off disease so I guess my white blood cell count was way low.
The bone marrow biopsy was scheduled to take place about two weeks later. At the same time I got Thrush from the clindamycin. Thrush is awful because your tongue is coated white and looks awful with no taste and it kills your appetite. I couldn't work with that so I ended up taking more time off to get better.
I started to mend and headed back to work still wondering what the heck was going on. It took almost a month to get the results from the biopsy during which time the stress of waiting was palpable. Many things you begin to think about and most of them not very good. Even though my throat got better it was back to the blood issue again and I was not even sure if it was only the white blood cells again or the enlarged spleen.
The local doctor referred to me was looking at my blood results and he could not figure it out at all. Just like me he was waiting for the results.
The good thing in all this was at work even though I missed a bunch of shifts I was more than half the second place waiter in sales when I returned to work in the wine sales contest. The contest ended toward the end of January and I won overnight accommodation for 2 , a dinner voucher , and a wine tasting for a weekend in April.
I had a real good six month job evaluation from the manager but got the message to concentrate more on cheque average the coming month so I had to forego the selling of the feature wine as it was not the most expensive wine they figured I should be selling. I decided right there and then not to bother selling it at all. Instead I was going to concentrate on the cheque average.
Finally I got the call from the local doctor but only it was not him but the receptionist who gave me the news. The news was that I had an appointment with a Dr. Maceachern on this day at Grand River Regional Hospital in Kitchener. No news of the results. Nothing. I had to wait till I saw her the following week. I asked if it was cancer and she said that she did not know and that she was passing along this message. This Dr. Maceachern would have the details. I said well I guess this is goodbye because I will not be coming back I imagined. This new doctor I would be dealing with in this regard. Thank you I said and gently hung up the phone quizzical as ever. I did have a family doctor already and did not need another one.
So now I had to wait for this appointment to find out what I had. How frustrating it was but I had been waiting for these results for a month already so why not another week.
The only thing when I looked up the doctor she was at the Grand River Regional Hospital alright but I noticed she worked in the Cancer Center so it didn't look good.
This continues tomorrow...
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