Membership

Well, the day has finally come...I'm done with my bachelor program, and not a moment too soon. The graduation ceremony is Saturday and although I'm *cough, cough* years old, I'm still participating in the ceremony because I suffered through my share of hurdles on the way. Yay!

Otherwise, I became the member of two different clubs last month. The first is a lifetime membership to Delta Mu Delta, Kappa Alpha Chapter, which is a National Honors Society for Business Administration. Then I also received information about my automatic membership to the Great Lakes Hemophilia group. I really feel like I don't belong--I have such a minor case in comparison to people that almost can't move because even a small cut could kill them.

However, the upside for me is that I received two laminated cards and three sheets of paper in the mail from the Hematology Nurse yesterday. Two of the sheets of paper confirmed that the medication that I tested did indeed show a significant increase in my Von Willebrand Factor, meaning that a simple medication will help me stop bleeding when I have minor cuts or nosebleeds. Hooray! The third sheet was a detailed description of the how to handle me if I ever have to go to the ER/Urgent Care again for bleeding. The laminated cards state the name of the disease, 24 hour contact information for the Bleeding Disorders staff, and other standard info. Then I noticed 6 beautiful little words: "DO NOT KEEP THIS PATIENT WAITING". Seriously? This is the greatest day of my life. I have spent HOURS waiting to see a Doctor when I went in for a nosebleed, and even once recently when I was sent to Urgent Care to be checked for internal bleeding after a surgery. Maybe the ER/Urgent Care docs around here (the ones that never even thought to check for this problem) will take me a little more seriously next time.

Otherwise, I have another nerve block with trigger point injections (probably 6-7 injections) coming up next week and then an unfortunate colonoscopy/endoscopy to deal with (regular check-up of other issues) sometime in the near future. I really wish I hadn't watched "Ghost Town" or whatever that movie with Ricky Gervais is called last weekend...

-S

P.S. When spell checking, the suggestion for "colonoscopy" is "kaleidoscope". Strange.