An important part of my preparation for treatment is setting up my support and recovery team for when I return. I met with my neurologist and she is supportive and on board to continue working with me when I return. I met with my PCP and received her full endorsement for treatment. She also was a fantastic resource for finding a great hematologist/oncologist who understands this treatment process and will be skilled at monitoring my recovery.
I do many appointments virtual these days, one of the silver linings of Covid. But for my first appointment with this physician it was important to him that we meet in person.
I can’t remember having a medical appointment like this before. Upon entering the exam room and sitting down, the first thing he said to me was that he did not like reading the medical chart before meeting with a patient. Instead, he spent the next hour and 15 minutes doing a very thorough and detailed medical history. And, he took all of his notes on paper, multiple sheets of paper, handwritten. He was present, intelligent, kind, and insightful. I left feeling like I was in very good hands. He sent me up to the lab to have 13 vials of blood drawn in order to do a deep dive into my health markers and immunological strength.
If I had not known he would be asking for this extensive amount of laboratory work, I wouldn’t have caught the original phlebotomist’s mistake of pulling an old order from a different physician who only needed one vial of blood. The original phlebotomist was a student and I was switched to a fully credentialed phlebotomist and watched the blood flow.
All the results came back stellar and provide an important piece of my foundational comfort level moving into treatment.
Team member added, check!