If you've been keeping up, I spent June 9-13 at Wake Med While Dr. Moe, Larry and Curly couldn't get together on schedules. This past week I met my Oncology team, and they have jumped in with both feet to defeat this thing. They recognized I was severely dehydrated and began administering fluids in the Doctor's office, then admitted me to their hospital Thursday June 16-22. That's two different hospitals over two weekends. The treatment plan has not yet started, this is just the pre-show to get me strong enough to withstand the treatment plan.
My surgeon, Dr. White installed a feeding tube and attempted to stretch my esophagus again to allow food, pills and water to go down, but again it wasn't enough and I still can't eat or drink, but at least I am getting nutrients from the feeding tube. I can taste food, I just can't get it to my stomach. The whole Duke Team has been working together and have made a single minded plan for how this is to be resolved, and they are aggressively working with my best results in mind.
I am not bashing Wake Med at all, they saved my life back in 2009 and I do believe they are good at what they do. This Cancer Team at Duke Raleigh Hospital , knows how devastating Cancer and its treatment can be, and they certainly see worse cases than mine everyday, but they treat everyone the same, and try to make sure things run as smoothly as possible and make the patient their priority. I am very happy with the team of Doctors I have looking out for me.
My personal Doctor told me to rely on my care team and know I was not going through this alone. That's where I am lucky, but not only do I have professionals I trust, I have friends, family and neighbors to rely on. When I got in my room at Duke, the very first person I met was the Fourth Floor Chaplain. I believe his name was Rev Robert Davis, but he came by every day I was in the hospital and we had a great fellowship each time. That never happened elsewhere.
Like I said, the treatment has not started yet, but I have a great support team at home that will get me through this. It's good to have cousins close by in the medical field that know what to expect, even though there's very little they can do right now but pray, and that's the best thing I need right now. And all my neighbors have been phenomenal through all this making sure Keith gets fed and offers of rides to the clinic. I got a great home support team and even folks I have never met praying for a good outcome. I'm where I need to be right now, there's a plan in place, and it's about to be executed fast furiously. Things are moving fast now, so hopefully by October I can eat some Halloween candy!
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