A Direction

There is a direction now!  Bob has a flight booked for Sunday, April 7 to Ontario, CA.  Apartment is rented.    He has his consultation at Loma Linda on Tuesday, April 9.  I will fly back to Spokane on Thursday with Rashell and then (no sure plan yet) fly to Ontario, CA on Monday, April 15 and be there by the time Bob has his first cancer treatment that week.  We will know more after his initial consultation.  All will be well...  

An Aside

Right now I am on a side journey with my granddaughter, Rashell.  We are on our way to California by car so Bob and I will have transportation when he has his therapy.  It is very entertaining, traveling with an eleven year old girl.  As we are on this journey, Bob is home trying to plan his.  First, because of insurance problems, Loma Linda gave him a new consultation date of April 24, much later than we had planned but going with the flow, I adjusted my trip too.  We lost our first apartment then Loma Linda called him yesterday to offer him an earlier date if he wants it: April 9.  That is a good thing and now we have another apartment on hold. Because of his previous date of April 24, I scheduled a flight back to Spokane April 4 for two weeks.  It gets very confusing.  Bob wants to start as soon as possible and he should.  That is the current plan.  It will all work...

Plans

What I have learned is that when working with Medical plans, if they are going smoothly something has been missed.  Because of insurance problems, Bob's proton therapy has been postponed for a month.  That means that all other plans need to be adjusted.  We are hoping to keep the apartment we put on hold but we don't know yet.  Bob's car and plane have been canceled.  My trip to CA with Rashell scheduled for this Monday is still on.  I will fly back home and leave the car there so we can use it next month.  Breathe...breathe...breathe.

 We need a single payer health care system in this country!!

OOOOhhhhhhh!

Insurance problems are no fun and sure do change the fact that things have been going smoothly for our journey!

Schedule

Things are progressing as  they should.  The trip is all planned.  We are flying home from Hawaii next Wednesday, March 20, after having a wonderful time with two fabulous women in their 90's.  Bob is flying into Ontario Sunday morning March 24, so he can get to his early morning consultation at Loma Linda the following day.  I am leaving Monday morning for the long drive so we have a car in CA.  Granddaughter, Rashell, is coming with me and will be able to visit her dad in Rancho.  Should be a fun road trip if we don't get into too much trouble.  Rashell will fly home the next week.

We have rented a small apartment 2 blocks from the Medical Center so Bob can walk to therapy each day if he wants. When we get there, I will post the address so if any of you have any positive, uplifting, funny, wonderful things to say or show us, you can mail them.  We will both have our computers so email will work too but it is always fun getting snail mail.

It will be a very busy 3 days at home before we leave for the 10 weeks.  Bob is so busy now and constantly on the phone.  I think I will need to take it away for a few weeks so he can concentrate on himself.

Aloha

Bumps in the Road

So the journey continues.  Today Bob found out that he needs another PSA test before they start at Loma Linda.  He will have only 3 days when we get home before it's time for him to fly to California.  We will be busy. They also told him that it could possibly take 8 days from his initial consultation on March 24 before he can start his first proton treatment.  Looks like we will be in CA longer than expected.  Just bumps in the road...

Research

Bob’s urologist suggested surgery.  There is a cutting edge, robotic machine called DaVinci, much less invasive than the surgery of the past but it is still major surgery.  They would remove the prostate.  After much internet research and book reading, Bob has decided the probable side effects are not something he wants to consider.   There are other solutions: External radiation therapy uses a machine outside the body to send radiation toward the cancer; Internal radiation therapy uses a radioactive substance sealed in seeds or catheters that are placed into or near the cancer; and Proton beam therapy, a high energy external radiation therapy that targets tumors with streams of protons (small, positively charged particles.)

 

 Proton therapy resonated with how he wants to be treated.  The closest place offering this is Loma Linda, CA.  After exchanging medical records and having the colonoscopy they required, he has been accepted into their program and will begin with his consultation on March 25.