As Terry moves closer to the two month post surgery date from his surgery for bladder cancer, he is going to start making the rounds of the other “gists” who treat him. He begins with the endocrinologist tomorrow, and then visits the cardiologist two days after that. It should be interesting to hear their take on what’s transpired with him since he last saw each of them.
An interesting aspect to these doctors he will see this week is they are both women. I know we shouldn’t be making generalizations, but those two women are the two doctors he sees on a regular basis who actually listen to him and look at total body involvement. One of our complaints is that the specialists specialize, and as he experienced at the last urology appointment when they learned he was having trouble sleeping and needed a sleep aide, they don’t want to deal with anything outside their specialty. I may be a bit biased where he’s concerned, but it seems to me a patient who has been through all he’s been through would recover better if his body actually got recuperative rest. When you sleep in two hour blocks at night, you are not getting the kind of rest your body needs even if you haven’t been through the stress of cancer, chemo, and surgery.
He has seen the cardiologist, as he could not go through the surgery without cardiology approval, but he’s not seen the endocrinologist. He is taking very few medications right now, so we’re both hopeful it remains that way. Without an adrenal gland and his thyroid his energy is definitely still an issue. I have to believe if he got adequate sleep his energy levels would benefit as well as his overall healing.
His weight continues to be a concern, and that is one area that the endocrinologist may be able to address. If he’s currently “amped” up too much on the synthetic thyroid he isn’t going to be able to keep weight on, or sleep well. The lab will likely be based on labs drawn a couple of months ago when he was hospitalized, so it’s hard to know whether time would make much of a difference looking at those levels. He may have to do that again to get accurate information.
I think she will be very surprised when she sees him. The cardiologist saw him just prior to the surgery, but the endocrinologist has not seen him at all since the diagnosis of bladder cancer. Even though his beard and hair have started growing back in, his face is still very gaunt, and the weight loss shows on him.
In some ways, starting to attend appointments with the other doctors in his life is a symbol of things getting better. The more he’s getting around, the less we are reminded of the urgency that had been associated with the stage 4 bladder cancer. It generated an intensity that we’re both glad to be rid of for now. Hopefully going to see the other specialists he works with, those other “gists” who take care of him, will begin the path to our new normal, whatever that may be.
