2/13/12 - Monday
Mom's first full day home from the hospital. Do you think she could just stay home and relax? Oh no! Not my mom... My uncle drove her to Walmart so that she could do some shopping. She tells me she was good, she drove the electric cart! LOL, Mom's...
I had to go back to the ENT this morning, seems my congestion is back and its in my chest. He gave me another round of antibiotics & said I should feel better by Friday. I felt so bad after my appointment that I took the afternoon off and went home to bed.
2/14/12 - Tuesday & Valentine's Day
Mom was tired when we spoke this morning, but she was looking forward to her and Dad going out to eat for Valentine's Day. She did spend the day at home till dinner.
2/14/12 - Second Opinion Search Part 1
I spent the morning scanning Mom's medical files and making some CD's of her scans. I faxed her pathology reports to St. John's in Tulsa. Michael made contact with them about a week ago and got me the info as to who I needed to send it to. It was helpful as it was one less thing I had to do. I went online to Cancer Treatment Centers of America to get some detailed info and saw that they had an online "contact us" section where you could ask questions. I'm an electronic person, meaning that anything I can do online, I will. So, I filled out the form, chose "cancer care" from the menu and left some breif notes as to why I was contacting them which included some info about Mom's condition and the need for a second opinion.
2/15/12 - Wednesday
Mom and Owen (Uncle) are back at it today.. They have been to Sam's & Walmart! GEEZ.. No wonder she's tired! She did say that they enjoyed their dinner out, they went to Golden Corral for VDay dinner. Mom is a big buffet lover.
2/15/12 - Second Opinion Search Part 2
Got to work this morning to find an email response from CTCA! Cool Beans, or so I thought..
Here is the part of the email that made me sad & mad:
I was so
sorry to read about your mother. I know this is a very difficult time for
your family. Unfortunately,
our doctors are so busy helping patients who have come to our centers for
treatment that they are unable to provide second opinions for others. I
am so sorry.
I was in utter shock reading this.. I had to read it several times to believe what I was reading was true. I dwelled on this email and the total lack of professionalism and insensitivity all day long. I finally had enough of how it was making me feel, so I went to CTCA's Facebook page and wrote this on their wall:
Shame
on you CTCA for telling me in an email that your doctors are "too busy"
to give my mother a second opinion due to the other patients you're
currently treating!
Really!!?? Guess you can stop paying for advertisements, you must be full to capacity!
I felt a little better after posting that..
So if that wasn't enough of a let down, I decided to make a call to MD Anderson! WOW, I didn't expect to hear the news I got from them either. They won't see Mom without a referral! So I called Dr Isa's nurse, Michelle, and she got the referral process started, but said it may take awhile because of the red tape.
Ok, so it was back to business, again.. I called UT San Antonio's Cancer Therapy & Research Center to ask about getting a second opinion. Debbie was awesome, she was so nice and understanding. She needed some info and mom's records and said she could email me the forms to fill out and that I could email her mom's records for the dr's to review. Sure was nice to talk to a compassionate person. I got her email, filled out the forms, got mom to sign the medical release and emailed them back before 4:30pm! PHEW! Now the wait..
2/16/12 - Thursday Stress City
Mom brought Gran and I lunch today. We had a nice visit together. After eating, Mom says "I need to go home now, I'm really tired". I knew she had been pushing herself too much this week.
I got back to work after lunch and my phone rings.. It's JPS social worker about Mom's referral to MDA. She says "I just got off the phone with MDA and they will not accept a referral until JPS has exhausted all of their treatment options". It felt like a kick in my gut. I mean, what does it take to get a freakin' second opinion? Shouldn't EVERYONE be accepted? Especially at one of the most sought after cancer treatment locations?
My day just went downhill from there. Jo and I texted some and discussed the reality that I may not get anyone that wants to give Mom a second opinion and that JPS would probably do all they could to treat her. I had hopes that I could find at least ONE cancer center that could offer a specialized treatment plan to extend Mom's life for as long as we could without compromising her quality of life. I went home that evening with a very heavy heart and had a good cry on Kathy's shoulder. She asked if Mom and I had even discussed what Mom wanted out of treatment? Well NO!! We hadn't had that conversation. So, I texted Mom & asked how long she wanted to pursue getting a second opinion before calling off the hunt and letting JPS treat her. Her response was simple and to the point "Let's give it another week".
2/17/12 - Friday The Phone Starts Ringing!
It's about 9 o'clock and for some reason I didn't silence my phone when I got to work, so when the phone rang it startled me. The number was Tulsa! The voice on the other end say's "Hi, my name is Eddie and I'm calling in response to the fax you sent concerning a second opinion for your Mom"... I was so excited I almost said "Thank you Jesus" out loud.. Eddie tells me that Dr Ho wanted some more info on the treatment plan that JPS had in mind and some additional records. So I got him to my download site so that he could get the records and gave him Dr Isa's nurse's direct phone number for the treatment plan info. Dr Ho will review the additional info and they will get back with me on Monday to talk about an appointment! YIPPEE!! I have to believe that all of the praying has paid off!!
So, after coming off that high, I thought why not email Debbie at UTSA and ask if she had heard anything.. It was worth a shot, and it paid off. Debbie responded quickly and said that they would be calling from the appointment office to set up a time shortly! I then sat on pins and needles for about an hour, which seemed like a lot longer.. Evelyn called around 3pm and just like that, we had our first appointment for a second opinion on 2/27/12 at 1pm at UTSA!
Mom was very excited to hear both pieces of good news.
No comments:
Post a Comment