Meeting with the new OB

Today I'm grateful for...
A healthcare system that is the best in the world
Having a chosen profession that I love
Tia (aunt) Doris for being here in the early stages of diagnosis
Spending time with my wife

The last three days were spent working and discussing what's next for Lulu. Today we had an appointment with a new OB, due to the fact that Lulu had been referred to Dr. C by many friends through out the last 10 years, but she felt so comfortable with our regular OB, that she never thought about changing. Even though we were done with having babies (I hope), Lulu wanted to get her C-section incision re-evaluated by this new OB doctor. What a great office and equally great team we were seen by today. This is the way healthcare should always be, but isn't always the case. Lulu told the whole story from bed rest/monitoring at St. Mary's to the present diagnosis of the breast cancer. I know a "hard to believe story" even for a hardened OB like him. Of course he made same logical recommendations for Lulu, and we left felling good about Lulu's gynecologic future.

We all stopped by the hospital to see Lourdes (Lulu, her sister Doris, and I) before we were off to UCSF breast cancer clinic to have another opinion. Lourdes was having a up and down day. She was stable for an hour or so and then having difficulties with staying oxygenated. Lulu got to hold Lourdes for a hour or so before we needed to drive down to SF. We hated leaving Lourdes here, but knew that it was only for one day and that she would be taken good care of.

Lulu's sister had been very busy on the phone for the last two days. She had been calling physician friends, and family ascertaining where the best place was to treat breast cancer like Lulu's? Lulu and Doris' cousin is a oncologist at the University of Alabama and as it turns out has been working with some of the oncology physicians at UCSF. So, he made some calls and got Lulu an appointment to see the best breast cancer oncologist at UCSF for Friday. Not just that, he also worked out that Lulu was going to be seen by the Breast surgeon, have another biopsy, and an MRI all in the same day. We were all excited about this prospect of having all the tests and doctors working in synergy in one location.

So with hope, anticipation, trepidation we set off for the 4.5 hour trip to SF and the long medical day that we were to have tomorrow. We arrived here about 10:00 PM and were very tired. I wasn't going to have any problem sleeping tonight!