What's one more Test?

Today kicked off my month of doctor's appointments and scans. When my schedule was sent to me from the hospital for April it went onto two sheets of paper. Yes, one 8x11 was not enough to contain my April.

First things first, lets start with a yearly physical. My yearly physical has always been late March/early April so it just happens to carry over into my crazy month of tests and scans. It's always nice to start with the easiest one.

My PCP was happy to see that my weight was back down the 8 lbs I had put on last year. Which meant we didn't have to have the discussion she had started last year about weight gain and tamoxifen. She was happy to hear that even though I couldn't sprint anymore (kodos to her for remembering I was a sprinter!) that I am still running. The hospital just transitioned to electronic medical records so we were taking a look at the way my past medical history was ordered.

-GERD (heartburn)
-Fancy medical term for rash
-Allergies
-Vitamin D Deficiency
-Malignant neoplasm to sentinel node
-and then free texted in was something about Breast Cancer

My PCP was not having that. She reorder it. R Breast Cancer s/p lumpectomy, chemo and XRT. Currently on tamoxifen. Great. We worked our way through the list and then we got to GERD. She asked me how I felt about coming off my heartburn medication. I told her I would like to stay on it. I told her I was still having some flare ups. And this little conversation made me realize that I may or may not be in a little bit of denial about how my gut is working.

PCP: How often are you having a flare up?
Me: Well in February it was probably 7 times, then same for March and then last week I only ate a bowl of cereal and cup of soup all day.
PCP: So....that's not ok.

We chatted some more and she decided that given that I am a young cancer survivor she would rather be overly cautious and send me for an EGD  to take a look at my esophagus, stomach and duodenum. Not totally psyched about adding yet another test to my month, but seeing as my stomach has hurt more often then not lately it's probably worth taking a look. That and I should probably stop eating all the leftover Easter cake........and no more chocolate bunnies........and maybe eat like a dietitian.....maybe

However, I loved that she had the same response that myself and my parents had. Let's just blame this on the chemo. I am standing by that. 1 year and 5 months after finishing chemo I claim that yes, my heartburn flares have more to do with chemo than chocolate bunnies. That's some good strong denial. 

So for the month of April I just have to have an EGD, a MUGA scan, a CT scan, a bone scan, a mamogram, and EKG and some vaccine shots. Then I'm taking a vacation. And maybe eating more chocolate bunnies. Seriously.