I went to the OTO (Otolaryngology) Department today while Gator was getting his chemo, to see if they had scheduled him for the surgery (2^nd try!) to fix his voice. They didn’t. They haven’t managed to do anything they’ve said they would do from the beginning. His neck is still sore from where they tortured him last week trying to do the procedure that he requested they do in surgery! I told the receptionist that I wanted them to schedule the surgery like they said they would and she said she would have the doctor call me. I told her no…I don’t want to talk to the doctor, I told her to schedule the appt. or I would get a hold of the patient advocate. She gave me the direct phone number to her line and wants me to call at 7:30 am and she said she would put me right through to the guy who will schedule the surgery. I told her if this didn’t work the next call I would make would be to the patient advocate. Gator asked me to mention, if anyone reading this ever feels like they have a legitimate complaint about the VA get in touch with the patient advocate department. We did! Don’t sit around complaining to everyone that will listen because not everyone will help you….the advocate does!

I am so tired of this…..Gator can’t take much more! He is handling everything else like a champ but his voice is so important to him! He’s really getting frustrated. It’s been over 4 months with no voice now….

The MRI and CT scan are both scheduled for February 9^th and then we’ll see Dr. Grim the following day to hear what the game plan is. They’ll either remove the pic line from his arm that day or tell us when his next appointment for chemo is. We have to stay the night at the motel tonight just to make sure Gator gets no serious side effects from the Chemo then we’ll head back home in the morning.