Waiting

Waiting, waiting, waiting.  Oh, suck.  

Right now, I'm stuck in a holding pattern on my blood tests.  My doctor, the fabulous Dr. H, decided to pull a lot of blood for a battery of blood tests she knows my rheumatologist is going to want anyhow, so she's ordered them at student health so I don't have to pay out of pocket.  She ran a series of things checking for protien in urine, thyroid problems and muscle inflammation, but the most important is the lupus antibody series looking for anti-DNA, anti-SM and anti-RMP.  That one takes several days to process, so I knew I wasn't going to get the results back until sometime this week.

The big problem, however, is that Dr. H. was going to be out of town after Tuesday, and I didn't catch her in time after she called me with the results, so I'm waiting until my appointment first thing next Tuesday to get the results that have been sitting in my patient file since Wednesday afternoon. I'm not a patient person by nature, and the anticipation is killing me. 

Se gave me a call before she left to keep me updated:  "I just wanted to let you know that the blood tests we ordered were mostly quite good, and I wanted to talk with you in person about the results."  The last time she pulled that "mostly good" garbage was when all my tests came back clear except for the ANA.  Well, damn.  In addition to being a little impatient, I can be a little paranoid.  In my mind, the one that isn't clear must be something in the lupus antibody series.

I ran by the student health clinic to check on the results Wednesday afternoon, and one of the nurses came back to check on me after consulting my chart.  "Dr. H. said she left you a message, and to make an appointment for next week when she's back in," the nurse said.  Then she sort of paused and gave me a funny look.

"Besides," she added cautiously, "... If it were me, I think I'd want to talk to somebody about my tests in person.  Don't you?"  My mind started racing.  The paranoia, as far as my mind was concerned, had just been confirmed.

"Um... sure," I answered, and I made the appointment for the following Tuesday. 

I only have two more days to wait, so here's hoping I can sit on my hands a little while longer... and they don't go numb on me again while I do...