As I have said before, I live in 3-4 month increments. Last week, Cheryl and I made our standard pilgrimage to Houston for yet another CT scan, and doctor visit. We both pray that the cancer is gone, and we will find nothing new on these trips!
The appointments started at 9:30am on Wednesday, so we rolled out of bed at 4am that morning to get ready, and headed out WAY before the sun came up. Even though this is a three hour drive, we have done it so often, we do not seem to notice how long it takes.
Once again, as we sailed through the Texas countryside around La Grange, the morning fog layer was sitting close to the ground, raising up about 20 feet. It might have reminded us of snow back in Nebraska. It was kind of neat, and cleared as the sun came up.
We have found a route that gets us to the hospital pretty quickly, so we arrived at our standard parking garage in good time. We usually guess what level we will end up on, I guessed six, but it ended up nine. The higher we end up we go the busier M.D. Anderson is, so that was not a good sign. The place was pretty busy, and this time our first appointments were not in the main building, but over in the Mays Clinic. That meant we had to take a ride on their "train" that connects major buildings in the complex.
We signed in for the requisite vampire feeding, and I was called in pretty quickly. The technician assured me they were not vampires, but rather "walking dead" (WAY too many of these silly shows on TV it seems!) I suspect either image is not really appropriate for this place, but it does lighten what would be a too somber mood otherwise.
The blood tests went quickly. I am losing my aversion to being stuck with that nasty needle, and then we went up an elevator to the CT imaging area. Once again, I got in and out with little fuss. The IV setup was a bit different, I had two techs working at the same time. I suspect it was a variation on the good cop - bad cop routine. One talked to me on one side, while the other one stuck needles in me on the other. I hardly noticed when they did that! I did do my standard "wait fifteen seconds, then say 'ouch'" routine. It got a laugh!
My only problem with this CT test was that the machine seemed pretty old, and this clinic was not as nicely set up as my normal area. No pictures on the wall, or scenery on the ceiling to stare at as you ride through the "do-nut" machine. Oh well, it went smoothly.
On the way to our next appointment, we stopped in the Reconstruction Clinic where my plastic surgeon doctor left a letter explaining why I had metal in my face, just in case it triggered something in a TSA checkpoint. We were going to fly to Virginia on Friday, and thought this would be a good idea. Security at airports was reported to be pretty high level!
Eye Checks
My vision continues to be something I am concerned about. With only one eye, and that one affected by the stroke, I want to make sure we have done everything possible to prevent further damage, and make sure we are doing everything possible to improve things. I asked to see one of their ophthalmologists on this visit, so that was the next stop.
The doctor who saw us gave my eye a very good look, but in the end said there was nothing he could see to indicate we could do anything we were not already doing. He did say that their standard protocol for dealing with strokes like this is to see a Neurologist to prevent another stroke. We left it that I would see about doing this back in Austin. We were both disappointed there was no magic switch he could throw to make my vision better. I guess I can deal with this. As usual, I really have no choice!
Dinner with Friends
Cheryl's High School classmate, Sharon and her husband Dan, just got back from a trip to Paris, so we scheduled dinner with them to see here 500+ pictures from the trip! Aren't digital cameras neat? We used to take a week long trip and come back with two rolls of 16 pictures, now we can come back with thousands of pictures if we like! Then you get to spend days cataloging all of those, trying to remember what was going on when you took them. I can foresee a day when we will wear a digital hats, armed with cameras, GPS, and voice recorders, and all we need to do is walk around talking to ourselves, and the whole experience will be recorded for you to spend an equal amount of time watching on TV later. Shoot, maybe we are moving toward the cruise ships shown in Wall-EE, remember those?
Their pictures were neat, and reminded us of our honeymoon trip there almost 20 years ago! (We need to go back!). It was a nice evening. I even got to reconnect with their dog, Little-Bits!
Microcenter
Our first appointment on Thursday was not until 3pm, so we had a leisurely morning in the motel, then visited my favorite Microcenter. We had time to explore this place, since we were in no hurry. Usually we want to get home when we stop here, so the visits are short.
I bought a few toys, and we headed to the Barnes and Noble for another time waster. We stopped at a nearby Mexican restaurant for lunch, then headed back to M.D. Anderson.
Nutrition
The first stop was with a nutritionist we saw on our last visit. She wanted to do another check to see how things are going. We went over my issues in eating, and my swallow issues. I am making progress there, so she was happy with things, and said we did not need to see her unless something new came up later. She did recommend a nutrition planner "app" that she uses on her iPhone. It was pretty cool, it made suggestions on meals based on several criteria, like "quick", or "low carb", then created a basic shopping list for you that you could customize if you had some of the items. Then it gave you the final shopping list to take with you to the store. It looked neat enough that we may try it out soon.
The Verdict
FINALLY!
Our last stop of the day was with my primary surgeon, Dr. Lai. As usual, he was pretty busy, and our scheduled appointment time came and went. We sat in the waiting area for almost two hours before we were called back into that small room with the door knob I have mentioned before.
There it was, and there we were, waiting for it to move.
Finally it did, and one of Dr. Lai's assistants came in. He looked me over, and listened to my concerns about eating (and drooling), and finally told us he had looked at the CT scans, and they saw nothing!
YEAH!
I could hear the punch machine - registering another three months. Cheryl and I shared a glance saying we were both relieved! Praying for this worked!
The assistant left, and a few minutes later, Dr. Lai came in and we talked about how things were going. Dr. Lai agreed with my plan to see my plastic surgeon in Austin to explore options for my face.
Just before this Houston visit, I met with the dentist who built two appliances used to help me through my first surgeries for cancer, now over eight years ago. In that visit, we came up with an idea for an appliance that might create a "dam" that could help prevent food and drink from drooling out of my mouth. Dr. Lai agreed with that plan. We will explore that after I see the plastic surgeon in Austin.
Back Home
We were done! And, the trip was a success! We were going to celebrate with a Blizzard at Dairy Queen, but the place was closed for remodeling. So, we ate at a Sonic instead, and then drove back to Austin as quickly as we could. We had an early trip to make to Virginia coming up in the morning, and we had to unpack and repack for that!
As usual, we are both grateful for all the support we get, from readers of this blog, and from friends and family who check in with Cheryl while I am in the back rooms working through all the technical stuff surrounding cancer treatments! I is never any fun for us, and is stressful, to say the least. All of this support helps, and we both want to make sure we thank you for that.
Next up, getting old(er) and revisiting High School back in Virginia!
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