Thursday's Doctor Appointments

Yesterday was a very busy day for us. We had two doctor appointments in Springfield. Most of you knew about the Dr. P appointment, but they also scheduled us to visit with Dr. Hoos, an oncologist.


We had Dr. P's appointment at 9:00 am. We arrived early for a chest x-ray. Steve's lungs are looking better, but there is still a slight leak in the left one, so Dr. P did not pull his chest tube. One more week with the Mini 500. Actually, this is good. We definitely want the lung healed before we pull the tube. Dr. P also looked at his incision on the right side. He did some work on it and now I change the dressing wet/dry twice a day. They are ordering a wound-vac, which he should get early next week. It is a machine that they hook to the incision, and it helps it heal faster and without infection. A home nurse will come three times a week to change and check on the incision and wound-vac. After the appointment, we went home to rest before heading back for the afternoon appointment.

Dr. P’s office is making arrangements for us to go to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. We are unsure of any arrangements at this time, but we will keep you posted.

At 4:00 yesterday we met with Dr. Hoos. His office is in the cancer center on Fremont. He is a very nice man. He spent about an hour with us explaining chemotherapy, scheduling, and rearrangements that must be made. He agreed that we should go to MD Anderson. He is making all the arrangements for Steve’s chemo if he does it here in Springfield. In two weeks or so, Steve will have to have a port put in his upper chest and neck for the chemo. Dr. Hoos said it was pretty rough on arm veins and the port was better. This port will stay in throughout the treatment. After the port is in, we will be enrolled and take a chemo class. In this class they will educate us all about chemo, what to expect, what to do and how to handle the side effects. I hope they realize what terrible students teachers make. Steve liked Dr. Hoos and feels comfortable with getting his treatments here if there is nothing at MD Anderson. This is a great relief.

These trips really wore Steve out. He went to bed early last night and has a day of rest planned. Our weekend will be very uneventful. Hopefully it will be a few days of rest and relaxation.