Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2009. Mattie and Peter built this wonderful suspension bridge together and Mattie was very proud of this achievement! You may notice that Mattie had his leg in a cast. Mattie's leg was casted in hopes that we could straighten out his leg, because it seemed permanently bent at the knee. Given all that Mattie had endured, it is truly remarkable that he was able to play and smile. He will always be an inspiration.
Quote of the day: Giving kindness does us as much good as receiving it. ~ Piero Ferrucci
It was another full day down "on the farm!" Which is what I call our house! In any case, Peter had a doctor's appointment today and Sunny also had his routine scans to monitor the tumors in his stomach, bladder, adrenals, and spleen. Thankfully we brought my dad to his memory care center, because there is no way I could juggle him in the mix.
After we dropped off my dad at his memory care center, Peter and I drove to the doctor's office. Peter was on a conference call when we arrived at the office, so I let him stay in the car, while I went in 15 minutes early to check him in. When the physician's tech came out to the waiting area, I could tell she was looking for Peter. Since NO ONE else was in this area, I asked her.... 'are you looking for Peter Brown.' She said, 'YES WHERE IS HE?!' I explained that he was on a conference call and that I am sitting here holding his place. She did not like that one bit. She then proceeded to quote me office policy, that the patient MUST be in the waiting area 15 minutes before an appointment. Me being there was NOT enough. How I kept it together and did not bop her over the head was remarkable. But she was NOT letting up. She kept at it with me, peppering me, and implying because Peter wasn't waiting, he wouldn't be seen! Which was down right ridiculous since first of all he is a concierge patient and second there was NO ONE else in the office!
I text messaged Peter to get off his call and get inside the office. While doing this, I literally told the tech, "take a deep breath, you are going to make it!" She down right infuriated me. Those of you who have been following the blog on a regular basis, know that I refer to this doctor as dopey. Well it turns out that dopey is taking an unexpected and unplanned early retirement, and he is giving up his practice. We just learned this yesterday. Honestly this doesn't surprise me one bit, as I am quite certain he is experiencing his own form of dementia.
But this transition to find a new concierge doctor sent me scrambling today. Turns out dopey is referring his patients to another doctor at the hospital. I called that office today and scheduled a meet and greet in June with him. Because dopey and this other doctor work for the same concierge company, it will make it a lot easier to transfer patient records.
Thankfully it appears that Peter just has a very bad allergy, and his cough is nothing more serious. No need for a chest x-ray. Nonetheless, I am happy Peter is seeing my mom's pulmonologist on Friday and Monday. Since Peter never had allergies before in his life, this is definitely a new one for him. I live with chronic allergies and have for decades. The doctor says that since we moved to a more rural area from the city, that Peter's body maybe adjusting to this change. He says it can take up to a year to develop an allergy once in a new location!
Meanwhile, Sunny's situation remains stable in his stomach, liver, spleen, and bladder. So the chemo is being tolerated and though it would be nice to see a reduction in tumor size, I will take STABLE. With that said, Sunny has developed a new tumor (5mm) in his anal gland. So in four weeks, he goes for a physical exam to determine if there is any further growth in the anal tumor. If it grows larger, we may have to consider surgery. Of course with surgery means Sunny would have to stop chemo periodically, which is never good, and this change could cause further growth at his other tumor sites. Which is why I take it ONE DAY AT A TIME in my household.
Midday, I took my mom out to lunch and then we went shopping. We have a lovely outdoor mall close to us. We haven't been to this particular restaurant for months. When we returned today, our server (Meredith) was thrilled to see us. She showed us her wedding photos and she told us we made her day, as she considers us one of her favorite customers. As tonight's quote points out, kindness can go both ways, and we always try to make Meredith feel special and in turn she shares this kindness. Which as a result made all of us happy today.
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