Jeanie and I load John in the Van for a trip into NYC. We are headed for the famed Cancer Center of NY. We have an appointment with one of the top oncologists in the city. He was recommended to us by a close friend who paved the way. When I called to make the appointment, his administrative assistant said,
"Oh!!! We've been waiting for your call!"
You can't imagine how refreshing that was. She was lovely. She took all of our information and called me back an hour later with an appointment time.
The ride was uneventful. Thank goodness. We arrive at the center, where Jeanie drops us off, heads over to park the car, and we go in.
This place is like a palace. We are ushered into a center where they handle the intake and new patient registration. I'm very impressed. We finished the entire intake and paperwork, when she asks us if we want to register for palm scan. holy crap! This is very high tech.
In a nutshell, it's exactly what it sounds like. you put your right hand on the scanner in any one of the Affiliated centers or hospitals and ALL of your patient records show up on the screen. It's so cool. And I know this because we got to test drive that puppy. But more on that later.
We are directed to the 8th floor. We get on the elevator and it has a seat! John likes that. Upon reaching the 8th floor, we enter a gorgeous waiting room. I go up to the desk to collect the secondary registration forms. They hand me all the forms, pens and requisite clipboard. They they advise me that they have coffee, tea, hot cocoa, sodas, juice, saltines, graham crackers, a computer terminal and free WiFi.
This is better than being home.
We sit down and I fill out the paperwork. I hand it in and we are waiting for what feels like hours. Oh wait - it is hours.
It's nearly 430 when they call us in and we are taken to an exam room where a lovely nurse practitioner takes Blood pressure and temperature. She reviews the intake forms and asks for additional information.
She leaves and tells us that the good doctor should be joining us shortly.
The door opens and a very tall man comes in - average build. He introduces himself as Abe. He talks to John, asking lots of questions. He examines the arm by feel through John's clothing. Nothing grabs him of interest but he will cover that with us later. He talks to us specifically and tells the Pain Management Specialist will be joining us. I look at Jeanie and realize, this is a class operation here. They have specialists for everything even within the practice.
Dr. Mahr joins us and asks some of the same questions, but finally lifts the sleeve on John's shirt and I almost pass out. The bruise goes from his shoulder to his elbow! This was not there this morning! I put him in the shower myself!!!! I'm sick at this point. Dr Mahr calls downstairs and send us immediately to xray.
We go down to the first floor to get xrayed. Once there, John gets called in immediately. While we are waiting, the nurse practitioner comes in from upstairs and tells us we need to go to the lobby to have blood drawn while we are there.
John comes out, and we head down to the lobby to phlebotomy. She takes us right away again and John grades her on her performance. That's what happens when you are married to a phlebotomist! After that we head upstairs to Dr Chou Chou's office.
We are ushered into Dr Chou Chou's office where we are surrounded by elephants. Big ones, small ones of every medium. It's an odd thing to collect. But here we are and there's not one elephant in the room, but hundreds.
He turns his monitor to face us and say "You have a broken arm. In fact, the orthopedist that I sent this to, said well, it's a little fracture. a LITTLE Fracture asshole"
We all giggle a little at that one. I immediately feel like a heel for letting him ride out a broken bone like that.
Then he tells us that John has a mass in his lung that is Squamous Cell Carcinoma. It's advanced but he can't stage it without a PET Scan. In addition he has lesions on his bones which caused the rib fracture a few weeks back and the arm fracture that we are currently dealing with. Most likely the treatment will be chemotherapy.
He has no way without some advanced testing to determine if its metastatic from the original 2008 cancer or if it's new.
Some things need to change and new tests need to be ordered. There are going to be CT scans, Maybe an MRI to start. But the biggest issue he has is the platelets are dangerously low based on the blood test taken the day before John was discharged from South Ocean. His Sodium was low too.
This sinks in and my head implodes.
Inside I am screaming.
THEY LET HIM GO HOME WITH LOW PLATELETS AND LOW SODIUM
We came in there to start with for electrolyte imbalance!!!! How do you discharge someone you KNOW has these issues???
The doctor and his team think that there is a possibility that the platelet situation is a result of the floor protocol at South ocean to put all patients on heparin.
The Platelets are 48000. Normal is 51000 and up - his are usually up around 100000.
I am floored but Dr Mahr moves us to the next phase which is pain management. She told us to throw away the percocet. Happily, I think to myself. She provides us a script for a pain patch and Hydromorphone for breakthrough pain. Then we get a script for a prescription strength laxative and a stool softener. A sling for his arm.
They send us home and we are to make a call for a followup appointment in 3 days.
Jeanie gets the car and we strap ourselves in for rush hour traffic. We just make it out of the midtown tunnel, when I notice that my cell phone is ringing and it's Dr Chou Chou.
"Where are you right now?" she asks
"We just exited the mid town tunnel, why? Did we forget something?" I ask
" Please turn around and come back to the emergency room at the NYU Medical Center" She says, "His sodium is dangerously low"
"um - OK. " I stammer " What's the address?" I manage to get out.
She provides me the address and we hang up.
I tell Jeanie what's going on and then I turn around to explain it to John. Who isn't getting it. He's not comprehending what I'm saying. Ah. Yes. I've seen this before. I know what this is. The fear skitters through my stomach. I tell Jeanie to hit it, we've got to move. Time is of the essence.
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