So I reluctantly called my doctor's office this morning around 9am. I actually got to talk to someone instead of just leaving a message to wait for them not to call me back. She said all the doctors were on vacation today and tomorrow, and then every doctor except mine (which I knew this) would be back on Monday. I told her about the pain and the blood, but both had gotten a little better by this morning. So I told her I wasn't sure exactly what to do about it except call them. She recommended what I was already thinking - monitor it and if it gets worse let them know. I then asked her about the script for ordering more supplies, and she said the lady that takes care of that in their office is also out until Monday. So, it is what it is. After I hung up with her I went to clean my stoma and accidently pulled one of the stents out pretty far and my stoma started bleeding. Great. It then seemed to be throbbing a bit. We took my daughter to Target as part of one of her Christmas gifts to buy her some clothes, but I was moving super slow and experiencing pain, mainly around my stoma, and ended up sitting in a chair near the dressing rooms for most of the trip. When we got home I grabbed some lunch, took some ibuprofen and then took a nap. I felt much better when I woke up, and felt pretty good the rest of the day. Plus my pee was clear and my kidney didn't hurt anymore, so all that was good!
I had talked to ConvaTec about how to order supplies from their vendor, 180 Medical. Before I took my nap I got on their website and started a chat with someone and they said all they needed was my name, date of birth, my health insurance info, the name of my doctor, and they would do the rest (get the script from my doctor and place the order for me). That was pretty cool! I asked if my primary care doctor could provide a script, and he said it is possible, so I gave him my primary care doctor's name as well. He said one of their ostomy specialists would contact my primary care doctor first and try to get the script from them and if that was a problem they would contact my urologist. He said they would contact me before they placed an order to make sure I agree with everything on the order and that I should be hearing from someone this afternoon!
After my nap I got in the shower, and sure enough, that's when they called back. I tried calling back when I was out of the shower but I just got a voicemail where I left a message and didn't hear back from anyone - ugh! I really want to get this order placed before the end of the year since I've already met my deductible for the year! So hopefully I'll be able to get this all taken care of tomorrow.
I dried and curled my hair, and then Tim went to get in the shower to get ready. I had washed my night bag earlier in the day and had hung it up in the shower to dry. I asked Tim to wait to turn on the water so I could get my night bag out of there, but he started taking the bag out of the shower himself and the tip was hitting the side of the shower wall and I kind of over-reacted. I know he felt scolded for trying to help me, but I am feeling a bit paranoid about the night bag since I'm suspicious that not cleaning it could have caused my UTI. I found another place to hang it up and so we finished getting ready and then left to meet another couple who invited us to dinner at Bonefish Grill, which is where our daughter works. On the way there I apologized for overreacting and explained why I think I did, because I'm feeling a little paranoid about getting a UTI, and then I started crying. I've been doing pretty good emotionally I think, but it just kind of overwhelmed me at the moment. I don't want to be worrying about a UTI, I don't want to be cleaning my night bag every other day, I don't want to worry about my stents tearing at my stoma - it just seemed a bit overwhelming as I felt the weight of all the new things I have to do now. It didn't last long, and it was probably good and healthy for me to mourn about all of this, but I didn't like feeling that way. I played the 'thankful game' (as we call it) right after that and recounted a bunch of the things I have to be thankful for, which I know helped a lot!
Anyway, we arrived at Bonefsh and we were able to have our daughter as our server for the evening, and what a lovely time we had. Tim had snuck out sometime today and bought an amazing cake at a local bakery, had them write on it, 'Jodie is now cancer free!' and delivered it to Bonefish Grill so they could bring it out to us at the end of the meal! What a sweet surprise! It really did feel like a celebration, and I was thankful for the reminder once again of everything I have to be thankful for! I came home exhausted and thought I'd go right to bed but ended up talking to my mom's cousin in California for almost an hour and then decided to do this blog post. So now it is after midnight and definitely time to go to sleep. Until tomorrow....
I had talked to ConvaTec about how to order supplies from their vendor, 180 Medical. Before I took my nap I got on their website and started a chat with someone and they said all they needed was my name, date of birth, my health insurance info, the name of my doctor, and they would do the rest (get the script from my doctor and place the order for me). That was pretty cool! I asked if my primary care doctor could provide a script, and he said it is possible, so I gave him my primary care doctor's name as well. He said one of their ostomy specialists would contact my primary care doctor first and try to get the script from them and if that was a problem they would contact my urologist. He said they would contact me before they placed an order to make sure I agree with everything on the order and that I should be hearing from someone this afternoon!
After my nap I got in the shower, and sure enough, that's when they called back. I tried calling back when I was out of the shower but I just got a voicemail where I left a message and didn't hear back from anyone - ugh! I really want to get this order placed before the end of the year since I've already met my deductible for the year! So hopefully I'll be able to get this all taken care of tomorrow.
I dried and curled my hair, and then Tim went to get in the shower to get ready. I had washed my night bag earlier in the day and had hung it up in the shower to dry. I asked Tim to wait to turn on the water so I could get my night bag out of there, but he started taking the bag out of the shower himself and the tip was hitting the side of the shower wall and I kind of over-reacted. I know he felt scolded for trying to help me, but I am feeling a bit paranoid about the night bag since I'm suspicious that not cleaning it could have caused my UTI. I found another place to hang it up and so we finished getting ready and then left to meet another couple who invited us to dinner at Bonefish Grill, which is where our daughter works. On the way there I apologized for overreacting and explained why I think I did, because I'm feeling a little paranoid about getting a UTI, and then I started crying. I've been doing pretty good emotionally I think, but it just kind of overwhelmed me at the moment. I don't want to be worrying about a UTI, I don't want to be cleaning my night bag every other day, I don't want to worry about my stents tearing at my stoma - it just seemed a bit overwhelming as I felt the weight of all the new things I have to do now. It didn't last long, and it was probably good and healthy for me to mourn about all of this, but I didn't like feeling that way. I played the 'thankful game' (as we call it) right after that and recounted a bunch of the things I have to be thankful for, which I know helped a lot!
Anyway, we arrived at Bonefsh and we were able to have our daughter as our server for the evening, and what a lovely time we had. Tim had snuck out sometime today and bought an amazing cake at a local bakery, had them write on it, 'Jodie is now cancer free!' and delivered it to Bonefish Grill so they could bring it out to us at the end of the meal! What a sweet surprise! It really did feel like a celebration, and I was thankful for the reminder once again of everything I have to be thankful for! I came home exhausted and thought I'd go right to bed but ended up talking to my mom's cousin in California for almost an hour and then decided to do this blog post. So now it is after midnight and definitely time to go to sleep. Until tomorrow....
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