The week has turned out to be more challenging than I ever could have predicted. As you will recall from our earlier post, we were meeting with the surgeon on Tuesday and the oncologist on Wednesday to review last week's tests and determine the timeline for surgery. Sounds easy right? Well, not so much so.
Tuesday afternoon, I left the office to meet Roger at Dr. Freeman's office at 2:15. All should have been fine, right? Um, no. We checked in with the receptionist and she promptly asked for the CD with the films from the PET/Scan. Roger had given me the CD with test films last week after the PETScan. I knew we needed it. I had his file with us - I had the written interpretation of the PETScan....but had unfortunately left the CD version DOWNTOWN in my office. The receptionist immediately scolded us saying "I called you yesterday and specifically told you to bring the CD" to which my rather heated response was "NO you didn't call me! No one called me!" only then did I look over at my sheepish husband as he raised his hand and declared "she called me". She immediately responded "so we have to get a new date for you". I tried to push for them to use the written version of the test results that day so that we could meet with the doctor....no luck. As I felt my blood pressure increase, the thought occurred to me that maybe it would be more effective for me to communicate with this receptionist if I crawled through the scheduling window and sat on her. ??? Sounded reasonable to me. Mr. Don't Worry 'Bout It Roger Wethington merely shrugged at the nurse and declared to both of us...."no big deal. We'll go with the next available day" That new date to meet with the surgeon is December 2. Ok - nothing we could do on Tuesday. Roger came downtown to get the CD and then took it back to the surgeon's office, just in case. Didn't do any good. No earlier date. Still meeting with the surgeon on December 2.
Wednesday went as planned! Yahoo. We met with Dr. Birhiray (no snafus, no mistakes) to review the test results. He was pleased. He explained that he wasn't worried about the abnormal shape of the bad lymph nodes. The fact that the needle biopsies came back with initial results as negative for cancer was good! The chemo and radiation did what they were supposed to do. We explained to Dr. B what happened with Dr. Freeman the day before in hopes that he could pull some strings...talk one doctor to another. Dr. B said he'd call Freeman for us and see if he could get a date for the surgery as he understood our (my) concern for getting the surgery done before year end. Um, yah. No luck. The doctors chatted - but nothing changed - the date for meeting with Freeman for a pre-surgery consult is still Dec 2.
As I mentioned before in an earlier post, we are trying to get the surgery in before the end of the year. We tried shopping for a second or third opinion from some doctor who would say "Roger doesn't need to have the surgery". Unfortunately, not one doctor was willing to say that. So, we know he should have the surgery. The question is when. There are two reasons for having the surgery now: 1) stay on course with the prescribed treatment, and 2) take advantage of the fact that we've paid all of our deductible and all of our out-of-pocket expenses. Despite knowing that...Roger is understandably none too thrilled about the prospect of surgery. So when the date for meeting with Freeman got moved to Dec 2, Roger did a little happy dance. As Roger puts it, he has grown attached to his esophagus - he's had it for 49 years - so he feels like he's losing a friend. :-)
So now you know as much as we do. The good stuff: Roger is his same ol' obnoxiously funny self. Making silly jokes, harassing the cats and harassing me. He's made dinner a couple times, has been working on the house, and has been going back into work. He's back to his affection self. Its really amazing....the old normal feels sssoooooooooo good! It makes me smile even now to think of it.
The holidays? We're driving to Florida for Thanksgiving. Getting the helloutta dodge for a tiny bit and hopefully getting a little sunshine in the process. As we drive back, I anticipate that we'll have to stop at a Christmas tree farm to get a tree - albeit waaaaay too early. As for Christmas itself, well I have a feeling it will be spent with some of the city's finest caregivers in St. Vincent's hospital.
When we have a date for the surgery, we'll let you know. If we don't talk to you before then, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat well, enjoy the company of your friends and family, and be thankful for life. Its a wonderful thing. ~ R&A
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