This contribution is just a short update on the current state of play. Tuesday evening I chatted with my surgeon and discussed various matters including some contributions from “learned” friends from within my network. My specialist is still consulting with her team and has requested a number of further investigatory tests.
As I previously stated, I was going to walk you through what occurs during my treatment. To ensure you are up to speed, I thought I would include my specialist's latest e-mail, which was sent after 10 pm Tuesday night. She certainly puts in the hours! It is a bit medical, but it will bring you all up-to-date. Surgery has now been delayed to carry out these further tests and procedures, as you will see in an excerpt of her e-mail to me below. As all our own personal medical records belong to us in Portugal, it is easy to share with medical friends or other professionals. Some of the comments in her mail relate to questions raised by such people.
“I understand your concerns and I´m not offended at all if you ask for second opinions - that´s our right to do it!
As I tried to explain to the Emergency Department last week (it´s a very busy place, so we didn't have the proper time to talk), all we know now is that you have an abdominal tumor - the CT scan raised the diagnosis of GIST, but that is not confirmed yet!
I told you we will need to do additional tests.
The tests that we need to do to achieve a diagnosis are:
Liver MRI (to study the lesions mentioned on the CT scan) - I already asked for this and it's better to do that here at the hospital - you will be informed by the hospital (by letter or phone call) with the date to do this exam - please let me know when it is scheduled;
PET scan (to study if they´re any other lesions on other organs) (better to do here, because I think it's difficult and expensive to do it in a clinic);
Thorax CT scan (to evaluate lungs) (better to do here);
Colonoscopy and upper endoscopy - I asked for these tests here but if your local family doctor would be kind enough to ask for them and if you could do them in a clinic, maybe we would save a lot of time (the waiting list is really big)
I asked too for an Anesthesiology appointment.
I understand the opinion of the other doctor - please realize that the diagnosis of an abdominal tumor was done only last week, so we really have to study it further with these additional exams.! I fully agree in doing a liver MRI, that's why I already asked for it.
Maybe we will need a biopsy, but our opinion is that we should first do the tests I mentioned to exclude other more common diagnoses than GIST.
Please be kind to forgive my awful English!”
I do not see much wrong with her English. It is far superior to mine.
Upon her request, I visited our local equivalent of an NHS GP on Wednesday morning. Since then, through him, I already have had my ECG appointment, (one of many I have had in the past 10 days) and the blood tests for the colonoscopy and endoscopy. The colonoscopy and endoscopy are scheduled for Friday. The aforementioned clinic informed me they were fully booked until January next year. But after revealing the specialists e-mail conveying the need for urgency, they made a slot available for me this Friday. How is that for service?"
So things are moving.
Meanwhile, some very disconcerting news emerged yesterday. Rozanne informed me she has decided to don her General’s uniform (the highest rank she could think of) saying,
“After weeks of being fobbed off by the masculine, ‘I am fine, stop fussing.’ I am now in charge.” This is the most terrifying news to date. Cheers.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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