Health update

Well, we're finally home after over 12 hours away in Gainesville! This has not been a red letter day for us, mainly because of Baptist South's negligence and my first oncologist's unprofessionalism. Unrelenting rain didn't help any either. It literally rained the entire time we were there. Cindy slipped on the wet pavement and hurt her ankle and her knee which was already hurting. Pray for her. We were definitely very glad to get out of there today.

First, we met with my new orthopedic oncologist today. He seems nice, although not much in the bedside manner department. A little crass, but I think we can work with him. The doctor does not want to rush into the biopsy. He asked if Baptist had run a bone scan which they had not. He would like to have a bone scan done before the biopsy. He says that may identify a better area for the biopsy than what Baptist had identified. He is hoping to be able to biopsy a less sensitive area. He said that the surgery is very invasive and that I would be on crutches for "a week or two". He's hoping that, using the information from the bone scan, that he can eliminate that possibility by finding a lesion that won't cause as much pain and need as much recovery time.

And now to the fiasco. Baptist South had created a CD of all of my CT scan images that they had in their system. This included scans done back in 2005 as well as my most recent scans. After viewing the images, the doctor said, "Where's the rest of it?" Why? Because there were images of my last head and neck/soft tissue scan, but none of my chest and abdomen, which is supposed to be primarily what was scanned last time!

My primary doctor was contacted, and he stated that, based on his paperwork and the reports he had seen, that it didn't appear that Baptist had ever done a chest and abdominal scan! They contacted Baptist South radiology and they said it evidently wasn't done! What!?! Then how could the first oncologist at Baptist have told me that he had viewed the full scan and that "everything looked fine" if the scan was never done? Obviously someone's facts are confused. Either there is some lying going on or incompetence on the part of Baptist or a little of both. I'm not sure, but that was quite a shocking revelation which made me even more glad that I dropped them!

So we were sent down to radiology at the Shands orthopedic center and went through a bureaucratic nightmare. Since Baptist had not done the chest and abdominal scan, there were still open approvals in my insurance's system for Baptist, but they needed to be switched over to Shands so that the new CT scan could be done. That was like pulling teeth! Then it turns out that Baptist should have also done a contrast pelvic scan which they had not -- they had only done one without contrast. Between the two that needed switched and the new request for the pelvic scan, it took over an hour to sort through all the red tape, then it took two more hours drinking the Gatorade with iodine for the contrast. I ended up not getting the CT until about 5 after arriving initially for my appointment at 9:30 in the morning! Ugh!

So the plan now is that the doctor should get the CT scan results on Monday. I have been given orders for the bone scan which can be done at Shands Jacksonville. I will call tomorrow to schedule an appointment with them. Once that is done and all the results sent to and reviewed by the doctor, he will decide how to proceed with the biopsy. It will likely be at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week, so again we're waiting. I consider myself a fairly patient person, but my patience is wearing thin at this point. We're still almost back at square one. The doctors today admitted that they were stumped and that I was the most interesting and mysterious case they saw today. I'm honored :)