Just got back from the infectious disease specialist. I called Dr Petrie's office on my drive over there this morning. I got the pathology report saying it isn't cancer. PHEW! My appointment with the infectious disease specialist was at 9:30 ... he blew off a bunch of other people and stayed with me and tried to figure this thing out for over an hour and a half! I handed him my list of every doctor I have seen, every date, every symptom and every medication. My obsessive organized list-making skills that have been the butt of many of your jokes have now earned me a "very well done" from the doctor. The puzzled look on his face when he finally examined me though ... well, that was another disappointment.
I explained how it isn't the first time I have seen that look, and how even 2 doctors had to go and consult the "big book". He did the familiar head shake, but at least he didn't scratch the back of his head like the dermatologist did. He said, "well, add me to the list ... I am going to go consult that big book right now." And he went into his office, which I could see in to, and sat at that desk with the monster 12 x 14 and 6 inch-thick book and read and flipped pages and read some more.
The front desk woman (who seems to take pride in running the place and making others feel inferior) kept at him to see the backup of people coming in. Actually, when I walked in, she growled at me and said "I don't have any authorization for you to be here." And I said, "Dr Trotter called me at home and asked me to be here at 9:30" and she said, "I don't care, you're not authorized by insurance, so I don't know if we can see you today." And I said, "okay, well I'll just wait till he gets here and at least let him know I showed up." And then the nurse said, "Dr Trotter wants her in the exam room" And then all of a sudden, the Nazi lady said, "well ... I guess I can just charge you the 10 dollar copay and try and get the authorization later." And I said, "thanks ... oh, I made these pens for you guys" and handed her 3 beautifully beaded pens that I crafted for the front-desk people. She said, "for me?" (picture the happy ending in "the Grinch that stole Christmas" I said, "yes, I made them for you ..." And all of a sudden, she takes them and turns to the other 2 women and excitedly said, "which is your favorite color? which one do you want?" And everyone was happy.
Well, when Dr Trotter came in, he said, "the culture shows some over-productive glands." I said, "possibly milk glands?" And he said, " that's my guess" but also the results say seborrehic dermatitis. He couldn't understand why nobody else was able to diagnose this. I reminded him that he was seeing something completely different than what the rest saw. He is seeing a hyper-inflamed version and also he has the culture results. Seborrehic dermatitis is easily treated with a drug called ketoconizole.
Sounds good right? WRONG! Ketoconizole has proven to cause harm in baby rats! I know I am not giving birth to a rat, but I am not feeling comfortable with drugs that cause problems in ANY living thing. Okay, thankfully the doctor wasn't comfortable either. He said he would not prescribe the pills, but he did prescribe a topical cream. Then he said, they may have stopped manufacturing the cream, and I can get a 2% version of the drug in a prescription shampoo. I am to use it as a cream. Lovely.
He wants to see me in a week.
When I walked out of the exam room, even though it was an hour and a half later, and I am sure my presence today screwed up every one's schedule, I was greeted with a big smile and they wished me the best, made my appointment for next week and said thank you very much for the pretty pens.
I called Daniel, who was still in his interview. Apparently, it got started late. He called me as I was typing this and filled me in ... they asked a bunch of questions, mostly about trust and teamwork, which has always been a problem between the support office and the outreach department. Daniel has always had a pretty level head as far as not jumping on the "I mistrust leadership" bandwagon, but he does acknowledge when he thinks they are not in the Lord's will at times. I don't know how they view him ... as a threat, or an asset. Then they told Daniel the pay scale, which was, in MY opinion, non-workable, but Daniel said he would do what he has to do and work as many jobs as it takes to keep us afloat. They had a position available at 29K, one at 33k and one at 36k. Daniel is currently at 36k, and to go backwards with adding a baby, well, like I said, in my opinion, it's not worth staying. We can obviously work with the 36K and be content, but I am sure that is the one position ALL the other people want as well. He will be up against his best friends now. I don't know how they will feel about it and if they will just leave the mission. We'll see. They told Daniel to hang tight and just keep working ... business as usual ... and they will let him know sometime in August if he got the job or not, and which of the 3 he got. I don't know how much warning he gets, considering they already had the "you're department has been dissolved" speech. My guess is that they told them all that a couple weeks ago, so that when they are ready to make the change and have got all their stats in order, they can just dump the people they want at a moments notice and not be considered illegal since they were told so long in advance they didn't have a job. So, for now, Daniel gets to go to work every day and we are waiting to see if he has a job by the middle or end of August.
As far as I am concerned, it is still a day to celebrate ... no cancer. THANK YOU JESUS!!!
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