Tomorrow morning is clinic day. It’s also the first time I get to meet the newest and third doctor on their staff at New Lung Associates out of Tampa General Hospital. I remember the first time I met the second doctor. Allow me a moment of fond memories of a time long ago.
It’s been about 6 or 7 years now, I suppose, when I first met Dr. Tarik Haddad. I was feeling like crap: wheezing, run-down, and lots of gunk when I coughed. Since I was labeled as “sick” coming in, he came in with full paper apron, mask, and gloves. After checking me out, he asked me, “so what do you want to do?”
Excuse me, you’re the doctor! You’re supposed to tell me what to do and then I tell you how I feel about that plan. I sort of said just as much. I’ve been trying to remember all day whether I went home to await home health for my IVs or if we tried some failed antibiotics first, but that was about the time I was on IVs every 3-6 months for a few years. He’s much, much better now and has grown into the job at the busiest lung transplant center in Florida quite nicely. I like both of my doctors, and word on the street is that the new guy is so nice he almost doesn’t fit in.
I have my moments of feeling like crap (like this exact moment before doing my treatments), but most of the day has been terrific. I even took some extra-deep breaths today while I was coding my heart out to get a lot of work done before taking most of the day off tomorrow. Speaking of coding, check out what I did to Beautiful’s site. We love it, but what do you think? She’s got great ads and has free products arriving to have a give-away. Exciting!
Beautiful said she won’t fight it if they want to put me on IVs because her excellent intuition has been beeping for a few months about my cough sounding worse and she said I smelled like tomato soup in the middle of the day yesterday. It’s been more than a year and a half and I’ve kicked a few resistances according to my cultures recently. Maybe they can put me on some low-grade meds to save the really good ones for last resort measures later to buy more time. Speaking of that thing I didn’t just mention now, I have exciting news I’ll be sharing tomorrow about that thing I’m not mentioning that happens down the road… just wait.
After clinic, we head across the complex to see Dr. Tabor for my monthly ENT visit. It’s actually been more like 6 or 7 weeks this time because we were supposed to go when we were still in Ohio caring for my grandpa right around Labor Day. I’m still feeling pretty good in my sinuses, so I think we have a good routine going. I’ve also heard recently that big diet changes help sinusitis, so that may also be contributing to my better condition since we changed so much of what we eat.
One last thing: I’ve recently migrated our whole family’s collection of sites/blogs to a dedicated server. Basically, we are isolated from other peoples’ sites and bad security choices, as well as dedicated resources to run our databases, images, and designs without waiting for the server to do other peoples’ things. It’s taken me the better part of 3 evenings and a good chunk of today to learn how to set it up, then move the sites, and then fix any nagging items, but I’m all done except my company site. So tell me, is it faster than before? It sure is quicker in the dashboard and loads all of my sharing buttons faster. Here’s a link if you want to give it a try or get it and expand into the realm of self-hosted yummy-ness.
Guess who else smells like tomato soup? Well, actually I call his marinara. Same difference. His sinuses have turned against him! Infection, but Cipiro to the rescue (with Tobi). I was waiting for the nurse to call in a prescription. My phone rang with the clinic number on caller ID. When I answered it was his actual doctor to my surprise! Hope things fare better for you tomorrow. If IV’s are needed, so be it. You’ve done an excellent job at being compliant for so long. It is likely a case of no matter how many things you did right, the wrong found you anyway. Looking forward to Facebook updates tomorrow.
Yeah, if it’s time, it’s time. With my fever Sunday, though, I kicked that, so we are thinking I’m still heathy enough to beat the crap out of a cold, which never used to happen before last March.
I’ll be on Facebook quite a bit, I’m sure, as long as I’m not on so much that Beautiful gets annoyed at my distance. ๐
I get busted for computer time. It used to be my Blackberry- but I just have a plain phone now. Probably a very good reason why he hasn’t upgraded me to an Iphone. @Jesse Petersen
Yes the new guy is nice, but I disagree… He’s the much needed ying to the other two’s yang. He fits perfectly! You’ll love him.
@txp_rn I’m looking forward to it. BTW, who are you… a txp RN at TGH? Nah! Couldn’t be! If so, awesome! I’ll be there around 7am if you want to swing by and chat.
@Jesse Petersen What gave me away? ๐ I stumbled across your blog over a year ago. I was curious and wanted to know more about CF. I have learned so much, and feel I take better care of my CFer’s as a result. So, thank you. It’s nice to see how our (sometime pain in the ass) docs are seen from the patients POV. I hope your clinic day is going well.
The wife’s new site design looks good! Not as good as you in that orange shirt, but good!
Yes, it did load faster for me. Good job!!
I’ve been off IVs for 18 months, thanks to Cayston, but I’m wondering whether it’s tune-up time. There’s no one around to tell me if I smell tomato-y. ๐
Are you still using your Pari Sinus? Do you use tobi or any antibiotics with it? I’ve got to figure out a better routine and my ENT doesn’t seem as hip as yours.