Thursday, April 27, 2017

Surgery Consults

Both consults for Chad's impending surgeries have been completed.

Neurosurgeon - April 26 - Dr Hall. We went to see Dr. Hall again yesterday to get the ball rolling on scheduling Chad's surgery. While the timing is up in the air, we have three things in motion.

1. Actual Surgery - Since Chad's hernia surgery is more urgent, that will come first. Both may happen at relatively the same time, it depends. However, we cannot officially schedule this surgery until we know the date of his Hernia Repair, as Dr Hall requires at least two weeks between surgeries.

2. Physical Therapy -  This did help Chad previously, so Dr. Hall has put in another reccomendation for more PT, pending VA approval.

3. Pain Management - The third go with this really seemed to help Chad have very little pain. Dr. Hall has submitted further pain management shots

General Surgeon - April 27 - Dr Swain. Dr. Swan was on the agenda today. He did not have the actual CT Scan images yet from the VA so the schedule and plan for surgery won't be confirmed until he has a chance to review those. He is hoping to do it as  laparoscopy and suggests Chad may have multiple hernia's, he's not sure.  He also provided some possible reasons as to the on-going, never ending pain and bloating that no one else seemed to have any answers for.

I mentioned previously somewhere - Dr. Swain was the doctor who took out Chad's Gallbladder and Appendix and originally found Chad's cancer. Due to his surgical skills - and the fact he even removed the appendix - it can be said that Dr. Swain essentially saved Chad's life. With that considered, we have always wanted to go and thank him for the work he did and the care he provided both before, during and after surgery. But we never did. Until today. We bought him a little thank you gift and gave it to him today.

Chad explained the impact he had and one of the funny things... When I mentioned to him that Dr, NOT something they usually do. He said they rarely even look at the appendix and basically gave praise to God for that. While I agree, it just solidified that Dr. Swain is not only a great doctor, but a great person.
Sardi said had the cancer remained in Chad's body another six months, we would have had a very different outcome (Probably would've burst, causing Stage IV Metastatic disease) - so the insight to even remove the appendix was a life and death decision. Dr. Swain responded that that was probably a higher power because that is

That's all for now. I'll update more when I have dates and details.


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Trip To Marion

Brief Update!

April 18, 2017 - We went to Marion, IL for a couple appointments. Chad had an ultra sound on his kidney and they ran a bunch of blood work and have him doing some other tests. I thought they were doing an actual procedure to test the functioning of his kidneys but apparently not.

We also met with his new oncologist. Her name is Dr. Sujatha Rao. She seemed nice enough but we basically just spent the whole appointment watching her dictate notes about Chad and his medical history.

It was just bizarre because all the information was there already and had she reviewed this prior to us getting there, it would have went much more quickly. With that said, she seemed nice enough and gave a decent first impression. She attempted to change his Scan/Blood Work schedule but I told her we preferred to stick with Dr. Sardi's schedule and she was totally fine with that, so that was great! The appointment was just a general check-up, so nothing to report.

April 26, 2017 - Chad has a follow-up Consult with Dr Hall, his neurosurgeon. I imagine we will schedule his neck surgery. This has me nervous.

April 27, 2017 - Chad had a Consult with a General Surgeon here in Murray to have his hernia repaired.  Talk about things coming full circle. The surgeon who he has the appointment with? The same Dr. Swain who first found Chad's cancer. Crazy!

Thanks, as always, for your love, prayers and support! x

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Blood Pressure

This is just a mini update. I have mentioned before, this Blog has been a life saver over the past two years because doctors are always wanting to know dates, times, behaviours and such and fortunately, as a result of this blog, I can usually answer the questions. Soooo.. here we go.

For those who follow along, Chad had his consult last Thursday. We ended up spending the day in the ER because his blood pressure was high. They ran blood tests, EKG, Chest X-Ray and a Head MRI and everything looked A-Ok. As a follow-up, he had an appointment tomorrow night at the VA Clinic.

Today, he went to work and had a bad headache. He went to the clinic on campus (He works at a University) and his blood pressure was 152/100. They gave him Clonidine and it brought it down to 120/71. They had him lay down and eventually, get up and walk around and drink some water. After a few minutes they took it again and it was back up to 130/90.

They told him to take the afternoon off. We decided to go to his VA Clinic today instead of tomorrow. We took his pressure on the way to the clinic and it was 128/100 or something similar again. Once at the clinic, the nurse took it manually and it was back down to normal.

The directive at this point, was to use our home monitoring system and keep track of his blood pressure on a chart. The nurse will phone in the findings to Chad's doctor and they'll either up his current medication or try him on something different.

I just woke him from a nap and it was 110/76.

So, for now - we're monitoring it and waiting to hear back from the doctor about his medication. I'll update in a few days when I know more (with hopefully good news)

Thanks for your continued love and support! x