Healthcare 65 Plus

The psychological effects alone, from a Cancer Diagnosis, have to shatter a person. They are about to fight for their lives, and these Oncologists make it so much more debilitating!  It is easy to see why, after all this nonsense, people give up.
My husband finally calmed down, and on the sixteenth of August, he had another episode of lack of oxygen. I was there visiting at the time. I told my son to get out of the room and let the rapid response team work. They brought him back and stabilized him. The head Oncologist was there, we got nose to nose, I told him, he had better start some chemo TODAY or I will find out why he still has a license!  He looked at me and left. They started aggressive Chemo that afternoon.   Please know, you have to fight for treatment or have someone with you who will fight for you.   Right after getting a PIC line in place. Which really made my poor husband uncomfortable, and he chased the poor Tech out of the room.  I had to tell him to have the Nurse call her back because he needed it for the Chemo.  I could not be sure what would be curable at this time; however, I knew without a doubt that doing nothing was NOT going to help! The next day, I visited my husband, and the knot on his neck had significantly decreased in only one day! After the first round of Chemo, four days later, the knot was not even noticeable. 
My husband was discharged on the twenty-first of August to follow up with chemotherapy at the East Hospital. Which was thirty-five minutes closer to our home. He would need a total of another four rounds of this aggressive Chemotherapy in a cycle of every twenty-one days. Our work had just begun. We needed to beef up his diet, get a supply of nutrient drinks, secure the supplements he needed, get supplies for when the neuropathy started, and line up a reputable Nursing registry. We then prepared for his no-notice naps that Chemo causes.  My children were wonderful and helped every step of the way.
We then went to their East facility for the continuation of his treatments as an outpatient. We were definitely not impressed with Dr. “Fancy Pants” (the Oncologist at this facility),  as he seemed more concerned with his own appearance than his patients. On the doctor’s visit just before his third round of Chemotherapy, this same doctor made this comment, “Wow, you’re still walking!” We had previously commented on how so many Chemo patients were in wheelchairs!  During these four cycles of Chemotherapy, we had a nurse leave a needle hanging in his port and discharge him for the entire weekend. We had to wait all weekend to get back into the chemotherapy department to have it removed. By the way, they don’t document mistakes or wrong procedures at this hospital. I am guessing they just bury their mistakes.  The next issue, which made us extremely uncomfortable, was a meeting with the Radiologist. who basically told us she would do this, that, and other things without even a PET scan first. Then, when asked if the radiation would burn his lungs, she acknowledged it would indeed. Thus, it was time to set up a second opinion. Next, we had a PET scan and tests. Meanwhile, I managed to get him into the University of Kansas for a second opinion. Thank Almighty God we did. The scan showed the cancer lesions were resolved, and the wonderful oncology team at the University agreed that radiation was not in order. We went with the six-week cycle of immunotherapy, which is proven to beat Head and Neck cancers from returning. His cancer was localized when he started initial treatment. We caught it in time. Throughout this journey, my husband did not lose an ounce of weight. Today, he is active with great vitality, doing all the things he did before, except that he sticks to a clean diet, gets plenty of exercise, and has less stress, and sleeps well..I am proud to say he told everyone he has a lot of living to do! It certainly looks like that is exactly what he is doing and enjoying life. The Good Lord has definitely blessed us in so many ways, we are so thankful. We moved on!