First meeting with Dr. Leong

Good evening everyone,

Sorry to be so long in reporting on my meeting with Dr. Leong yesterday. Read on and you will understand why.

Now to yesterday. My appointment with Dr. Leong was absolutely one of the most dreadful experiences of my life. It was so good that Brock was with me. Dr. Leong is going to be my radiologist (Radiation Oncologist). We were at the hospital for 10:25 but we were left waiting until 11:45 then we met with a Medical Student, a very nice and personable fellow. Finally Dr. Leong came in and we went into an examination room. He tried to insert a scope up my nose to view the cancer under my tongue. The same proceedure Dr, Filatov did the first time I saw him in January. It was horrible, worse than horrible. Even though he froze my nose and throat, I went into shock and he could not even get the probe past my nasal passages and into my throat/mouth. Finally after much anguish on my part, fear, terror, anxiety, throwing up and general mayhem he gave up trying. Now he will schedule a MRI od my throat and neck area to see what he is dealing with.

He will also try to co-ordinate the MRI with the commencement of the Radiation Therapy as much as possible. I gather that it will take longer to schedule the MRI than it will to schedule the radiation. He has prescribed ATAVAN for me when I go for the MRI to sedate me and relieve my anxiety. Wonder why he didn't do that yesterday?

Tomorrow AM, April 10th, I have an appointment with the Dentistry Clinic at the Fraser Valley Cancer Clinic (FVCC). The bottom right hand side of my mouth where Dr. Vansickle pulled out my 12 year old molar last Wednesday is still very very sore. I cannot eat or even drink without taking pain pills first. I'm still swishing with Amosan and taking Ibruprfen and liquid Tylenol 3. Maybe the gum is still infected. I hope I'll find something out tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

On Friday afternoon I see Dr. Anderson a surgeon. He will decide weather to remove the lump now before the radiation or after the lump has been shrunk from the radiation. Goes to show you the value of Dr. Filatov when he told me that there would be no surgery or Chemo. As for Chemo, Dr. Leong does not think I could stand up to the rigors of Chemo Therapy given my current state, so it is not planned for now.

I am expecting to receive a call from the FVCC internal Counselling service and I have agreed to having a personal councellor to help me through this difficult period.

I am feeling much better today and spent a lazy afternoon with son Brock enjoying the springtime grandeur of this area.

I'll keep you all up to date on an ongoing basis.

Bye for now,

Rick