Checking Up

Since I’ve returned home from our trip to Germany, I’ve had a lot of doctor’s appointments. Not because I’ve had an emergency or other complications. Just because my schedule fell out this way. Every so often during the year, the appointments stack up, like planes over Logan.

So, I’ve had an echocardiogram at BMC, a follow-up with my periodontist about my tooth extraction and pending implant, a check-up with my BMC pulmonologist #1 who follows me for interstitial lung disease, a check-up with my NP gynocologist, and a meeting with my new local rheumatologist, since my previous one left the practice. Later this week I have a check-up with my BMC rheumatologist, and next week appointments with my BMC pulmonologist #2 who follows me for Type 2 pulmonary hypertension, and with my podiatrist on the South Shore who saves my feet. I have a bookmark sticky note in my planner to remember to schedule a few tests for the fall, before the next round of visits.

Then I get a break for a few months, assuming all goes well.

It’s a lot of driving and time, and it can get tedious and exhausting. This is a complex disease that involves a lot of details and coordination of care. But I’m grateful that I have an outstanding team in place here at home and an hour-or-so-depending-on-traffic-away in Boston and environs. I’ve been dealing with scleroderma and its various manifestations for more than four decades, so it’s just all part of the rhythms of my life.

I’m also grateful that our gerontology team makes house-calls.

Stay well, all.

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.

Image: Kelsy Gagneben