1-30-09

Well , Gator had the procedure done on his throat (the one that would make him talk immediately!) NOT! He’s very horse! The first thing the doctor said was “this procedure is pretty tricky when it’s done in the clinic”! Why wouldn’t they do it in surgery then like we asked them to do in the first place?? The doctor said that because Gator couldn’t quit swallowing and gagging during the procedure he wasn’t able to inject all the stuff behind his left vocal chord that he needed. He says he thinks it will work anyway but we have to wait a week for the swelling to go down before we can tell if it worked. He scheduled him sometime in February to get the same thing done again only this time they’ll knock him out for it! If his voice comes back this week the doctor wants us to call and cancel the surgery. We tried to tell them that Gator’s gag reflex was too strong and we wanted them to do the surgery in the first place but they wouldn’t listen! They had to do it their way first!

I’m so angry….poor Gator, his throat hurts (they poked that needle right into his Adam’s apple 5 times!) and its black and blue. He coughs better now though and he actually makes a sound when he burps which he’s very happy about! LOL He’s still got that positive attitude…..its 1pm and we’re still in Tukwila at the motel. Gator’s sleeping and we’ll be heading home a little later today so Gator can see if he can work a microphone yet. Sunday night we’ll come back and Monday morning he’ll get his final Chemo treatment (6 treatments per session) of the first session. We won’t know until the following week (Feb. 10^th) whether he’ll stop the Chemo for a couple of months or continue on. We should also find out that same day just how well the Gamma Knife treatment worked….

2-2-09

We arrived at the “Homestead” hotel yesterday at about 2pm. We got here early so we could watch the super bowl. What a game! Steelers beat the Cardinals 27 to 23 …

We got up this morning (Monday) at 7am and got to the VA Hospital at 8am. They drew blood and made him wait for the results for the first hour then at 9am started the Chemo and by 3:30 he was done. He feels good! Not even sleepy from the chemo, doesn’t even feel queasy…he had a double sausage sandwich from Jack in the box for dinner! I swear the man has an iron stomach! LOL

We met a couple from Alaska in the Cancer Care clinic today. The guy was getting chemo for throat cancer …. Come to find out they’re staying in the room right next door to us! Small world…