B"H Feeling a lot better, but a little less at ease with the situation

My throat culture came back positive for group A strep, which was no surprise. B"H the antibiotics are working though, and though I still feel yucky my throat is much better and my fever is gone.

I was feeling enough better to go to the pharmacy and pick up my medications and bring paperwork to my doctor's secretary to start getting insurance authorizations for my visit yesterday, my CT and my surgery.

The CT is scheduled for Sunday. I thought I would have a bit more of a wait. My surgeon is afraid that the cancer he found on my esophagus and trachea when he did the surgery last year will show up, as well as the recent tumor. I certainly hope not. I am not sure I even want to go for a test that could show that. Ignorance is much much better than that kind of knowledge.

Knowing that the RAI didn't do much in my neck I really don't know what to expect. I had hoped it would take care of all of the stray cells and make miracles. Knowing it didn't is unsettling.

Last surgery was a right radical neck dissection. The current surgery authorization request is for a paratracheal neck dissection. It sounds better than radical, but I still hold that live people shouldn't be dissected at all.

It is also time to push the US Social Security office to look at my application. It has been 10 months since I applied and they haven't even requested records from my doctors!

I now have two qualifying diagnosis, of which I need one to qualify. I have the work time in the US as well. I worked full time in the US, legally, and payed my taxes for my work, until a year before I got sick. I only stopped because the office I was working in collapsed and my son was so sick that I couldn't consider looking for a new job.

The wait is getting frustrating.

If they would get their act together it would be easier to decide if we are paying for my surgery privately or hoping that my surgeon is the one there. He says he will try any which way, but unless the surgery is private there is no guarantee he will be the only one operating.

I don't think I want some random resident operating on my neck. I am pretty sure I will have nightmares if I think too long about that idea so I am going to work on arranging to pay the fees to make sure my surgeon is the one in there the whole entire time. It is my neck and life on the line and it is worth a lot to me.

I am sure it will all work out. B"H it always does. The trick will be getting to the end still smiling during the day and sleeping soundly at night.