September 3, 2009

Mom has her first appointment with Dr. Cole this afternoon.  Janet is going with us and I'm so thankful for that.  We go back to the room shortly after we get there and Dr. Cole comes right in.  I think that's good because it didn't give Mom a lot of time to be apprehensive.  Dr. Cole is very unassuming and immediately makes us feel comfortable.  She briefly looks through Mom's charts and then begins to question her living arrangements.  We tell her that I am with her all the time with the exception of some nights when her grandson, Matt, is with her.  She questioned whose son Matt is.  Why are you in a wheel chair?  Are you driving?  Are you eating?  Do you have a living will?  Have you lost weight?  All the questions we have answered over and over to the myriad of doctors we've seen. 

When we were at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Rini, told us that the report from the CT scan at Lima stated Mom has Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma.  He was perplexed by this as she had Clear Cell RCC 13 years ago and felt it was a recurrence of that kind of cancer.  Evidently, Dr. Rini, did research of his own, and collaborated with another physician and changed the final diagnosis to Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Dr. Cole agreed with Dr. Rini's recommendation of the drug treatment Torisel.  She notices the veins in her hands and tells her she would rather have a port put in her chest.  She refers to Torisel as a chemo drug and we told her that Dr. Rini said it wasn't chemo and called it an anti-cancer drug.  She responded by saying it has to be administered by a chemo technician.  She assures Mom that she won't lose her hair, and the likelihood of her being nauseated is low.  She recommends treatment every other week, rather than weekly. 

We leave and we all agree Dr. Cole is very personable and kind.  Mom is very happy with her, and that's what matters the most.

Janet suggests we eat at Mom's favorite restaurant, Red Lobster, and boy does Mom eat!!  She ate a double shrimp dinner, two rolls, mashed potatoes and half a salad!  They also weighed Mom at Dr. Coles and she weighed 145, so she's not lost any weight in the past couple of weeks.  I can see why!  LOL

We're home now and she's very weak and tired from her big day out, but she keeps saying how much she enjoyed it.  She's such a trooper.