A Night at Hotel Hope

I'm taking off for Hotel Hope this morning to have my Hickman catheter installed as an outpatient under general anesthesia. I'll be discharged and then readmitted as an inpatient so that I can receive a dose of Cytoxin (CTX) chemo overnight. We're moving forward with the steps for an auto stem cell transplant even though we aren't 100% sure that will be the direction.

I'll be discharged again on Thursday late morning/early afternoon, only to report back later in the day for a blood draw and consultation.

I'm looking forward to Friday, which will be the first day in two weeks in which I haven't had at least one doctor's appointment or test.

On Monday of this week, I picked up the year-old biopsy slides from my former dermatologist. She asked if I could pop in to her office so that she could take a quick look at my skin condition. I could see that she was getting very excited by my skin and then admitted to me, "In a given week in my practice, I see the same 10 conditions. In a given month, I see maybe 20. But this is once in a lifetime." I'm glad I made her day.

Later in that same day, I returned to Dr. Chang's office for a skin biopsy. He couldn't wait to review the slides that I brought with me and immediately excused himself so that he could take a peek under the microscope. He came back and announced, "I disagree with the original diagnosis of granuloma annulare." The plot thickens. He also made arrangements to have the original lab send the "block" of the biopsy (I still don't quite understand this concept) to CoH for another pathology report. Very thorough.

Ooh, look at the time. I gotta' pack!