Patience, Grasshopper

On June 30th, I had my follow up visit to see how I am doing post op.

After dropping off the kids, I stopped to buy a couple dozen cookies for the doctors and nurses at U of M. They were all so kind to me - I figured it was the least I could do! After picking up cookies, I drove to Ann Arbor the night before so that I would not have to leave at 6am to get to Ann Arbor since it's almost a 2 hour drive from South Haven to Ann Arbor, and ended up going out to eat at the Ann Arbor Brewery. As always, nice to get out in Ann Arbor and see how the town lives!

The next morning, I had breakfast, and then headed into my appointments.

First, Dr. Eric McKean - she so silly! I asked her to make sure I was not leaking and was healing well, so she numbed the heck out of my nose, and put a camera up to make sure everything was healing well. Although not really a view I want to see of my insides, it was interesting to learn that I have a hole in my septum where I had my deviated septum fixed in 2010, and to get confirmation that my leak is sealed up tight! But still, not a pretty sight! We chatted a bit, and then I gave her and her resident (Eric?) cookies, which brought nice smiles to their faces.

I had a couple hours to spare, so I headed up to the Nurses station on 4D where I spent 16 luxurious days in bed (NOT!) and gave them a couple dozen cookies. It was nice that the nurses remembered me and gave me hugs! They all said that they saw a difference in my appearance and said I looked great. I also ran into Danielle, who was my main Nurse Practitioner while I was there, and spent some time chatting with her as well. Then, I spent the rest of my time before my next appointment reading Alone in my Universe (stories about journeys from other Acro patients).

At 12:15, I headed up to see Charlotte, Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Barkan for my follow up. As they were running late, I had all my blood drawn before my appointment.   Everything went well, and Dr Sullivan, my neurosurgeon, truly believes he got the entire tumor out, but after talking to Dr Barkan, my endocrinologist, he seems to think there is still residual tumor left behind, unseen by the MRI and CAT scans. He still sees swelling in my hands, and because my carpal tunnel hasn't improved very much, he opened my MRI pictures to see if he can find anything... nope nothing shows up. But several Acro's  have mentioned that their Growth Hormone levels are still high after surgery.    

Because the labs take about a week to come back, it's all a waiting game. 7 days to be exact. I'll tell you, I'm actually so nervous that my numbers are still high... before the surgery, my IGF-1 was 1334, on May 12th, my IGF-1 was 883, still very high  (I should be around 175-274 anout). I thought for sure I'd be at a normal range, but now I'm not so sure, abd trying not to be concerned... patience, young grasshopper, patience. 

Afterwards, I met up with another Acro who lives in Ann Arbor to swamp 'war' stories and get connected with others in my Acro Family, Alicia. It's nice knowing you aren't alone on this journey, and to be with others who truly understand what you are going through. There were supposed to be  3 of us, but unfortunately we never heard back from our third. It was still a wonderful lunch, and a welcome distraction.