Whole day spent WAITING....

Thank God I did not take Husband with me today - he would have either blown up from the sheer frustration of WAITING to see the doctors, or expired from sheer exhaustion! Either way would not have been good :-p

Got to the hospital at 11am, picked up the MRI films, and headed straight to the ortho surgeons clinic. Waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.... FINALLY got to see him at 1.10pm!!! SO MANY people to see him today, and his is not a speciality where a patient is in and out in 2 minutes! He takes at least 20 minutes or longer, with each patient!

When it came to my turn, I did not take too much of his time. His conclusions were as follows:
- There seems to be no muscle or nerve degeneration, not even in the bedsore location.
- The problem lies with the spinal bones in the sacrum area, which is where the cancer spread to. Specifically the bones numbered S1 and S2 which are precisely the pressure points when sitting or lying down
- He does not think that surgery is going to be helpful, nor cortisone injections, and he feels that the pain management doc can be the most help.
- He suggested I also go see the oncologist (Dr Low) who did the radiotherapy (end Oct), to double check if anything further can be done.

So, from his clinic on the 2nd floor of the hospital, I went to see Dr Low at his clinic, just one floor below. Was there at 1.30pm, was told he had just gone for lunch... so I went to have my lunch, then got a magazine to read while waiting for him. Finally got to see him at 3.20pm, and this is what he said:
- He checked the MRI, confirmed that the radiotherapy that was done should help BUT could take up to 3 months to take full effect.
- He said it helps in 80% of cases... which means, of course, that Husband could fall into the 20% that are not helped by RT
- It has been just over 1 month since the RT was done... so that leaves potentially room for some improvement on the pain over the next 2 months (assuming again that Husband falls into the 80% who ARE helped by RT).
- He said if the pain specialist we are going to see has got strong anaesthesiologist background, she should definitely be able to help. He said she may recommend something like a nerve block which can be effective for months at a time.

So... I guess it all comes down to what the pain management specialist can do, when we see her tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, was supposed to go the supermarket to do some long overdue re-stocking of our larder.... but by this time I was just too tired and fed up, so I just came straight home. It is funny how exhausting it is to just sit and wait :-p.

So, tomorrow morning, by 8am, my Dad will be at our house - as he has taken my Mum to see this Pain Management Specialist before and he knows the way there - so he is our navigator :-D.

Please continue to keep Husband in your thoughts and prayers, that the Pain doctor can help to relieve him of this never-ending agony. And, till next time, stay safe, stay HEALTHY.

PS: The 2 doctors today were both kind enough NOT to charge me for their consultation time - which I thought was very nice of them!