Consult One - Complete

Today was... interesting. Long. And Interesting.

Chad had his consult to get his hernia repaired. It didn't quite go as planned.


The surgeon who performed the consult (Dr Hayley) told us the hernia was worse than he anticipated for two reasons.

1. It was larger than they're used to repairing.
2. History of infection. When Chad had his Right Hemicolectomy, his wound got an infection. They had to open it up, to drain it and allow it to repair on its own.

The VA Surgeon said the mesh that they had available is not the desired kind and also that he would have to basically re-open almost his entire wound.

Long story short, he is recommending Chad for an out of VA-Consult for the hernia repair surgery. The 'normal' next step would have been to send us to St Louis for a consult but after our experience with that hospital with Chad's cancer, we were very much opposed to that idea. Dr Hayley basically agreed that for the complexity of the repair, Chad would be better off going outside the VA. It was quite interesting to hear a VA doctor basically say the care received at VA Hospitals is subpar.

So now - we wait for the decision on that.

In other news. Chad woke up with a pretty bad headache, borderline migraine. When they took his vitals, his blood pressure was high. After the consult, they basically made Chad go to the ER.

Gracious. It took ages to get into a room. Ages to see a doctor. Once the doctor arrived, he did a quick look-over and ordered blood work, an EKG a chest x-ray and a CT Scan on his brain. FOR A HEADACHE! Mind blown. It took about 4 hours in total. All the test came back fine, so they gave him a blood pressure machine to monitor it and if need be, I guess follow-up with his primary physician.

If nothing else, I am thankful for them being thorough and going above and beyond to make sure he was alright. It took way too long but at least there is peace of mind that everything appears to be A-Ok.

That's all for now! Thanks for your continued love and support!