Feb 16, 2011 Update

Here is the link to the audio file of Dad’s 1^st consultation. It’s the last 5 minutes and the voice you hear is Dr. Mocha-ba-dye.

The final results will come on March 1^st.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this yesterday, but the Dr. asked if we had been there before. Tom & I looked at each other, Dad shook his head no, then when the Dr. said it looked liked there was a scan done in 2009, Dad said, “oh yeah, Dr. Nalos ordered that”. The Dr. then said that the report mentioned something about lymph nodes in that report and Dad replied, “He gave me the results and said everything was fine.” Dr. M looked puzzled and said not to worry they would do the tests again to see where we are at. The two things I take away from this is could we have done more if we knew back then, and if it’s been going on for two years it must (hopefully) be slow moving. Anyway, Dad has one scan today and one tomorrow. Take care. Love you,

John

Feb 1, 2011 Update

Attached are the notes from yesterday’s doctor visit. You will see that he ordered several blood test again, the main one rechecking the kidney. He is also checking on dad’s anemia and if it is too low he will order a blood transfusion for dad.

Dad is primarily concerned with his control problems and told the doctor that the stream is better sometimes, but that the frequency is not. The doctor told him that it might take time for the swelling to go down and see some improvements in the frequency.

He reviewed all his medications and told him to continue all the prescription meds.
Dad was given a cream for the rash on his back, but the doctor was unsure as to what caused the rash.

The doctor also told dad that he has swollen limp nodes about 1 inch around. These were detected on the CAT scan they did of his kidney a few days before his surgery. The doctor told us that to evaluate them they would have to open him up from his belly and work their way to the back to biopsy them, they are located near his back, but there is no easy way to go in from his back. If it is cancer, then the chemo treatment would have to be sever to have a chance of killing them.

The doctor also discussed his anemia stating that they would like to go into his bone marrow in his thigh to see why it is not making enough red blood cells.

Dad refused both procedures and told the doctor, fix the frequency problem first and we can talk about what is next.

We did talk dad into trying a sleeping pill at night to see if he can sleep better. Dad wrote down every time he got up the night before his doctors appointment and it was at least once per hour. He did try 1/2 pill last night and said it wasn’t much better, but he didn’t get up until Tom went over at 9:45 am and did have a 2 1/2 hour period where he didn’t wake up.

Dad’s next steps are:- Blood test again the week of Feb 28th.- Drs appointment on March 7th at 2:45 pm with Dr Nichols- Follow up with Dr Chang on April 25th at 11:40 am.Tom, let me know if I missed anything.

Love to all,

Bill