Thursday, February 25, 2016

A trip to Big City for a great check-up.

As I related previously, my usual oncologist, Dr. Hema has retired. I have been assured that his reasons for retiring were not, at least not entirely, based on treating me!

I was transferred to a new doctor who I shall, because of my wish for his and my privacy, refer to as Dr. Hema2. I appreciate that his office is a fair bit closer to our home although it is still about 45 minutes away depending on traffic and weather.

I like the new doctor very much. He is, as is expected, younger than Dr. Hema, but we also share interests in travel to the western USA.

He discussed my latest test results and he was very happy to report that my numbers are about the same as for the last few visits. My M-spike number is still a vanishingly low 0.2. More important than the number itself is the trend. It has been 0.2 or thereabouts for several years now, meaning that the cancerous cells are still present but neither gaining nor losing ground.

Dr. Hema2 says, as was told to me before, that the number may, at some point, slowly rise and, if high enough, require more drug therapy. That might be in six months or six years or even never. Most importantly, it isn't today!

Dr. Hema2 said that we'd check again in six months and to go enjoy my life. I keep wondering if that means that I should deduct from my income tax return the cost of my next vacation as a medically prescribed expense. Hmmmm....

My beautiful wife was unable to join me at this visit, so we rescheduled a celebratory lunch for later in the week. We did, as requested by the doctor, go enjoy our life!