Labs

Who knew it would be so tough to get some dang labs?

To recap,  a mass blocked E.'s bile duct, so his liver backed up with bile.  On Thursday, they placed a stent in the duct so hopefully all that bile could drain.  He needs some normal lab numbers so we can travel to MD Anderson in Texas to hopefully figure out some options to deal with this latest cancer recurrence.  (He can't get any treatment with his liver numbers so out of whack.  With the bile so high in his body, it's very toxic.  Add poisonous chemo to the mix and it could be deadly.)

In my search for information online, it looks like it can take anywhere from days to weeks for the bile to drain.  An added complication though is sometimes after a few weeks, the tumor begins to grow over the stent, causing another obstruction and so you're back to where you started.  I also read about situations where the stent was unsuccessful for a variety of reasons.  It seems reasonable to me that we need some labs to see where we are at.  1.  If the stent is working and his numbers are down, we can make arrangements to get our butts to Texas.  2.  If the stent isn't working and his numbers aren't decreasing, we need to come up with Plan B.

So, on Friday, I left message #1 with the GI nurse explaining how we were trying to get to the Cancer Hospital in Texas because we had no options here.  In order to do that, we needed some normal labs.  Because I figured the office would be closed on Monday, I was hoping we could get a lab slip before the weekend to hopefully collect labs on Monday.

On Monday, I discovered the GI office was indeed open.  I left message #2.  I again explained the situation.  At 3:30 p.m., the nurse returned my call.  Once again, I expressed how important these labs were to our situation.  She indicated that she would discuss it with the doctor and call me back shortly.

What's the definition of "shortly" anyways?

This morning (it's Tuesday now, in case you lost track) I headed to our Primary Care Physician.  I was in and out in five minutes.  I left with a lab slip in hand.  Thank you Dr. H.!

4:15 p.m. rolled around and the GI nurse called back.  (That'd be 4:15 on Tuesday, not 4:15 on Monday.)  Anyways, she informed me that when we left the office last week, we were given a lab slip that had a date for his next labs.  NOT.  I quickly thumbed through my folder of paperwork and I definitely did NOT have a lab slip.  Anyways, they'd like E. to go in for labs on 11/29/12!  That's 16 days from now!!!  And a full 21 days from his stent placement!!!  Clearly we are not on the same page here.  Did the nurse not hear anything I said in my messages or my discussion with her?  Our follow-up appointment with the GI that was scheduled for this Thursday was re-scheduled for December 4th!  And the purpose of the appointment according to the nurse?  To discuss further stent placement.  Oh dear.  Get us to Texas.

Crossing my fingers for some good lab results tomorrow.