A MUCH Better Day at Duke Today

Today was a much better day at Duke, at least for me.  Joe never seems to be bothered by anything.  For those of you that read the Monday post you know I was not a "happy camper" after his doctors appointment.  But I have calmed down now and today's oncology appointment went a long way towards helping.  Joe had a later appointment this morning, 10a.m., with his chemo infusion at 1:15pm.  Joe said he was a big boy now and could do it alone, but I insisted on being at the doctors appointment but I did let him do the chemo thing alone.  I've missed a lot of work lately and we are trying to keep it at a minimum.  Therefore, I only went to the doctors appointment.  I got to the Duke Clinic about 10:15am since Joe has to have his blood drawn prior to seeing the doctor so it is usually a 45min to an hour wait after that.  Joe was already checked in and sitting in the waiting area when I arrived.  We were called back to the exam room around 11:15am and only had to wait a little while before the nurse and then Leigh Howard came in.  Joe and I both talked with her for quite some time about last week's appointment with Dr. Tyler and then this past Monday's appointment with Dr. Perez and the confusion we felt after the latter appointment. I have heard from Dr. Tyler that he would make some calls about possibly getting another opinion on the hernia, so I already felt better about that aspect. We talked with Leigh in depth about the pros and cons of Joe having the hernia surgery, delaying his chemo treatments, possible complications and so on and so forth. The real decision is since Joe is not having any real problems with the hernia, should he just wait for a possible complication to occur or have a surgery to hopefully keep possible complications from ever happening. Sort of a preemptive strike. But like with all surgeries, there are risks and should they not be able to do the surgery laparoscopically, then that would mean a longer recuperative period and a longer period without his chemo treatments.  Leigh has a way of making it all easier to understand and never rushes us and always says that everything is our decision and she will be supportive of any and all decisions we make. In case you can't tell, we like her!  Her greatest concern is of course any delay or break in the cycle of chemo treatments, which could give the tumor a greater chance of growing and/or spreading. We will just have to weigh the pros & cons and make a decision.  But we don't have to do that right now.

So after a half hour of talking with Leigh and her examining Joe, I was off to work and Joe was off to the infusion clinic for his ritual cookies and hot chocolate (yes, ladies and gentlemen, even in 100+ degree weather, Joe has to have his hot chocolate at the chemo infusion center)

Joe made the best of his day afterwards by going to King's Sandwich Shop (if you've never been there, we both HIGHLY recommend) where he had 2 hotdogs, loaded with toppings and fries.  So all in all it was a good day, we both feel pretty good and we are off to our favorite Thursday night dinner destination in just a few minutes.  Hopefully Joe will be able to sleep tonight.  He has a history of having trouble sleeping on his chemo days so we have our fingers crossed that that streak will end tonight.

(Joe reading the blog to make sure I was accurate)

Thank you for all the prayers, well wishes and continued support from all our family and friends.  So many people are pulling for Joe!