Today I had my first follow-up appointment with the gynecologist who has been taking care of me for over a decade. This is the doctor who worked tirelessly to find a surgeon willing to perform my hysterectomy. He has always been kind and completely in my corner, but he is also well-versed in dry humour. Appointments with him feel like I am out for coffee with an old friend, with a bit of medicine mixed in.
He has made several simple one-liner jokes over the years and has always made me laugh.
Today he was explaining risks of taking Estrace vs risks of not taking it.
Similar to birth control, Estrace comes with a risk of blood clots and everything that can result from them (strokes, heart attacks, you get the picture). He said that if I were to ever experience a blood clot, I would basically be deemed as ineligible to continue hormonal replacement therapy.
Now this is all, obviously, pretty serious. But to lighten the mood, he said:
"So just make sure you don't get any blood clots".
Then a wink.
There ARE ways to decrease the risk with physical activity, moving my legs when I am seated for long periods of time, and to drink plenty of fluids... but there is no foolproof way to actually CONTROL my blood so that it doesn't clot.
A little humour can go a long way, even when the topic of conversation is serious and, quite frankly, pretty scary.