another appointment

We'll be taking Mom to see Dr. Mirali, her plastic surgeon, next week to have a lump or swelling looked at. The lump is above Mom's left ear, and according to Dad, he first saw it about four days ago. Dad had mentioned the lump to Dr. Wheeler, the infectious disease specialist who looked Mom over on Monday, but the doctor felt that the lump didn't represent anything urgent. He also said, however, that there would be no harm in consulting Dr. Mirali, whose office is down the hall in the very same medical complex.

So Mom's got an appointment with Dr. Mirali on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Dad has called Dr. Meister's office, NCI, and Dr. Benson's office about Mom's perseveration, weakness, and general lack of affect. NCI passed the buck to Dr. Meister, since Meister is in charge of administering Mom's Avastin and carboplatin. Dr. Benson, Dad was told, is out this week; his assistant Karen was supposed to call us back, but as of this writing, we've heard nothing from her. Dr. Meister himself is supposed to call us back today, but we've heard nothing from him, either. He's called us in the evening before, however, so we may simply have to wait for him to get around to us.

Well, more precisely, Dad's going to be the one waiting: I'm off to Fairfax Hospital to check on Mike's father (last I heard: still no diagnosis) and to hang in the cardiac wing for a while.


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