Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Counting Down...

Hey everyone, sorry for no update in a while... I really haven't had a whole lot to talk about. I'm sitting here at the SCCA waiting to see my P.A. after a couple of tests (blood, EKG, X-ray). I need to go through this battery of tests again before my next transplant. So I'm doubling for a lab rat today, not that it's a big deal... Next up, my all important CT scan to find out what the first transplant did to my disease. Best case scenario would see shrinkage to all of the enlarged nodes in my chest and abdomen. Wort case, my disease has grown through the transplant and I have enlarged existing nodes and new ones as well. Of course I'm hoping for the former but wouldn't be suprised if the latter is true. I've developed a healthy level of skepticism after all of the disappointments over the last year. Not to mention, I've been noticing a minor swelling in my clavicular area over the last week. It's probably nothing but the last time I had a node check by my doc (where he takes his hands and probes my palpable nodes) he paused in this region above my collarbone then moved on. Of course, I've been pressing and probing non-stop since that visit and have proceeded to freak myself out a bit. I'll find out in a few minutes what the P.A. thinks and hoping it's no big deal (I can't really compare to my other side because I had one of my nodes removed when I was first diagnosed). I hope nobody's alarmed by me writing this (especially you Mom) but felt compelled to document this for reasons none other than trying to relax (it helps when I write about things like this).

So other than my neurosis, everythings cool! I've been doing some Christmas shopping at Costco and online. Trying to navigate the parking lot at Costco is enough to make you go crazy (as if I needed any help). That place in general is pretty much a zoo no matter what time you go. To complicate things, the last time I went, I spent an hour going through and picking up things for myself and gifts. I get to the cashier, they start scanning frantically, putting things in boxes and my total comes up. I hand the gal my Paypal debit card (they don't take charges) and she hands me the keypad back and asks me for my pin #. I scratched my head and told her I didn't know what my pin # was as I just got this card... Meanwhile, I look back and there's 4-5 people behind me with filled shopping carts looking not very happy. "Sir, I can't ring you up unless you have a pin # or cash"... Unbeleivable, I just spent the last hour carefully picking out presents and frozen food while dodging all of the other anxious shoppers. "Ok, ok", I said, do you guys cash checks? "No" she says with a disgusted look on her face. "Ok" I said, "do you know where a bank is around here"? "Yeah, there's a Wells Fargo down 4th". "Ok" I said, "I need to go and cash two checks and I'll be back with cash. Can you hold my stuff". "No problem sir" she said hastilly and off I went to Wells Fargo. So I go in, walk up to the counter and ask them if I could cash these checks (one was actually from the Lymphoma society reimbursing me for gas and parking fees, nice...). The teller then explained to me that I needed to have an account at Wells Fargo to cash checks. Great!! So, of course, I go and sit down with the new account clerk and go through the process of opening a new account. He said, "this will only take a couple of minutes". Yeah right... Around 40 minutes later, I finally walked out of the bank with cash in hand, inching ever so closer to accomplishing my goal for the day. So, I walk into Costco and up to the gal that rang me up. "I'm here to pay for my stuff". She gives me this blank look and proceeds to tell me that they put all of my stuff away. Noooooooo!!!!!!! You've got to be kidding me... "Ok, Ok, I'll just breeze through and grab the stuff I picked out, it's not that big of a deal" I thought to myself. So to make a long story even longer, I went and tried to pick up the stuff I picked out and amazingly, a lot of it was gone! Certain colors of articles of clothing were sold out in the sizes I needed, and certain things gone altogether in a matter of 45 minutes. Amazing... Anyway, that's my rant for today, thanks for reading up to this point. Gotta go up to my check up now.

Adios!!

No comments: