Posted by Becky
Today Leif saw a lot of doctors. And yes, they all wanted to look at his butt. He wore his "It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack" t-shirt (thanks, Karen!). By this metric, oncologists have better senses of humor than Infectious Disease or Surgery specialists. On the other hand, maybe that's just because we saw the oncologists later in the day.
We started with Infectious Disease. The chief doc there is overall pleased with how Leif is healing up, but concerned about a "boggy" spot near the former abscess. He'd like to do an ultrasound, and maybe a sigmoidoscopy, to check whether there is a spot of fluid buildup or a fistula (pathway for infection to enter) that could be of concern once Leif starts chemotherapy and his neutrophil levels plummet again.
After a drive-by blood draw in Oncology, we visited the Surgery department where Leif met with a nurse practitioner. She did the requisite surgeon's Q-tip jab in all the tender spots, and told Leif she'd talk with Dr. Meehan. Then I took Leif home for a nap, and late in the afternoon we went back to DHMC to meet with Dr. Meehan. He thinks that Leif is in good enough condition to start the next round of chemotherapy. He's trying to get an ultrasound scheduled for Leif tomorrow, and wants to start chemo as soon as possible after evaluating the results. He's on board with doing a sigmoidoscopy, but doesn't want to wait if it takes too long to schedule.
In general, Leif does not feel like his energy level is as high as it was in October before he went into the hospital for the last stay. But, Dr. Meehan feels that he's strong enough, and there's a need to kick the lymphoma while it's down. So we're still thinking that he'll be admitted for the next round of chemo on either Friday or Monday.
Today Leif saw a lot of doctors. And yes, they all wanted to look at his butt. He wore his "It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack" t-shirt (thanks, Karen!). By this metric, oncologists have better senses of humor than Infectious Disease or Surgery specialists. On the other hand, maybe that's just because we saw the oncologists later in the day.
We started with Infectious Disease. The chief doc there is overall pleased with how Leif is healing up, but concerned about a "boggy" spot near the former abscess. He'd like to do an ultrasound, and maybe a sigmoidoscopy, to check whether there is a spot of fluid buildup or a fistula (pathway for infection to enter) that could be of concern once Leif starts chemotherapy and his neutrophil levels plummet again.
After a drive-by blood draw in Oncology, we visited the Surgery department where Leif met with a nurse practitioner. She did the requisite surgeon's Q-tip jab in all the tender spots, and told Leif she'd talk with Dr. Meehan. Then I took Leif home for a nap, and late in the afternoon we went back to DHMC to meet with Dr. Meehan. He thinks that Leif is in good enough condition to start the next round of chemotherapy. He's trying to get an ultrasound scheduled for Leif tomorrow, and wants to start chemo as soon as possible after evaluating the results. He's on board with doing a sigmoidoscopy, but doesn't want to wait if it takes too long to schedule.
In general, Leif does not feel like his energy level is as high as it was in October before he went into the hospital for the last stay. But, Dr. Meehan feels that he's strong enough, and there's a need to kick the lymphoma while it's down. So we're still thinking that he'll be admitted for the next round of chemo on either Friday or Monday.
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