I feel like Cancer is one giant event planning activity – without an open bar. The number of phone calls, coordination, paperwork and sign offs required is mind boggling. Sadly, I know the direct numbers to most of our doctors, our Walgreens, and have sarcastic answers for some odd new patient questions. (I want to find the suggestion box for most of these offices - I've got some serious complaints about the hold music) As we ramp back up for our last round of chemo – I will be in mega coordination mode as we will have several appointments that will be needed post chemo including scans, blood work, lung testing, second and third opinions on surgery, surgical prep meetings, a potential blood transfusion, etc. all as soon as possible so we can get surgery lined up for the beginning of January. Add to that the holiday schedules of many of these doctors and running against the insurance clock and it’s going to be a whirlwind.
We’ve got to move fast so that the cells don’t continue to multiply and that we can get the tumor out and not need more chemo after surgery. In our perfect scenario, this last round of chemo kills all the cancer, Tom has a few weeks to bounce back, and then we do surgery as soon as possible in January to get the mass out. We meet with our oncologist tomorrow and will get a better idea of what we can expect between the last round of chemo and surgery in regards to what testing she will need to do and track. So we are planning to enjoy this long holiday weekend and try to get some rest before what will be a crazy week of chemo and post-chemo activities that will require a lot more activity than Tom is used to in his recovery weeks. More to come…
We’ve got to move fast so that the cells don’t continue to multiply and that we can get the tumor out and not need more chemo after surgery. In our perfect scenario, this last round of chemo kills all the cancer, Tom has a few weeks to bounce back, and then we do surgery as soon as possible in January to get the mass out. We meet with our oncologist tomorrow and will get a better idea of what we can expect between the last round of chemo and surgery in regards to what testing she will need to do and track. So we are planning to enjoy this long holiday weekend and try to get some rest before what will be a crazy week of chemo and post-chemo activities that will require a lot more activity than Tom is used to in his recovery weeks. More to come…