The Plan

I made a persistent pest of myself along the lines of a mosquito that buzzes in your ear but narrowly avoids the deadly swat each time. It paid off. I finally got to talk to a human. However exasperated with me she might have been, she was professional and didn't show it.

I got my appointment for the flea-ectomy for this coming Monday. My social calendar (otherwise known as the noaa weather chart) shows I'll be free that day as Hanna should be bothering the nice people in New England by then while Ike will be fashionably late. Perfect!

That will be September 8th. By my calculations, the 16th should come on or about 8 days from then. (I didn't mention I'm a mathematical geenyus, did I?) When I asked if the pathology would take a week, Tiffany said "Oh, no! It shouldn't take that long!" (famous last words).

So now I wait. I think on Monday I will beg the doctor to throw his weight around and tell the lab "STAT!" Why can't I have House's team of doctors?? They do their own lab work and con and connive to get results from other tests within the 60 minute confines of the show. **sigh** I mean, my life's a soap opera anyhow...what with all these cliff hangers.

I have a good feeling. I just hope I can maintain that good feeling after Sunday...when I take my last pill.

Drama is my middle name

Apparently.

I've been waiting ever since a week ago this past Monday to find out the pathology on those 3 flea specks I had biopsied, and I finally get a call yesterday. It's the doctor's nurse calling to tell me that all 3 were "atypical dysplastic nevi" meaning they aren't cancerous but could someday evolve into cancerous moles.

She then said that two of them were cut completely off while they didn't quite get all of the third one, and she wanted to schedule the "excision". I paused for a beat as I took it all in. Especially that last part because the word I heard was "exorcism". That'll make your head spin!

Anyway, I ask her if "atypical dysplastic nevi" were benign creatures and she put me on hold to go ask the doctor. He speaks their language I guess because she came back saying they might someday have turned on me, but as they were, under the microscope, they had come in peace.

So I call the clinical trial coordinator, all excited with my news, and she said she had the path report in her hands and was looking at it. She was confused because nowhere on it did she see the word "benign".

She fired off an email and copy of the path report to Novartis to let their safety control guy take a look and decide if it's safe to let me enter the extension phase.

I get a call this morning and as it now stands I have to have the excision done and have the path report come back saying they got it all and that there was no malignancy....all before September 16th.

So here we go again! I have left a message on the dermatologist's head nurse's answering machine saying it's critical I get this cut off me and the path back A.S.A.P. so I can stay in the study and that I will go to any office (they have 5 and the doctors travel between them like nomads) and it can be any time (NOW preferably).

The clock ticks, I sit and wait. I feel my very LIFE hangs in the balance here, or at least my quality thereof. I'm a Fingo Head and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's my drug of choice and in 4 more short days I will be OUT of Fingolimod.

From what I have heard and read, it's okay to go without Fingolimod for up to 7 days. If you go 8 days, however, you have to be closely monitored for adverse cardiac events as it will once again mess with your heart rate and/or blood pressure.

Just the stress of all this being yanked around about a couple of skin specks has been enough of a test of my heart rate and blood pressure. I can't take much more.

Oh, and there's 3 tropical storms headed this way and I will have to worry about driving around in them again. That little girl on the salt box sure got it right.