Health update

Monday morning last week, Bob had an appointment with the nephrologist. His kidney function is sufficiently stable that Dr. Zargahmee said to make the next appointment for 6 months out instead of the usual 3 or 4 months between visits.

That afternoon Bob had an appointment with Dr. Saw the pulmonologist who has taken over Dr. Beck's practice since Dr. Beck retired at the end of December. Dr. Saw highly recommended that Bob start exercising again. Bob seems to like Dr. Saw and will probably start doing some exercise when the weather improves. Dr. Saw recommended starting out slowly since Bob has not been doing any exercising for several months.

Wednesday last week Bob had an appointment with the hearing aid guy to take new ear impressions for his hearing aids because he was having so much trouble with the aids. Robert was unable to do the impressions because of the amount of wax in both of the ears. He said Bob would have to have the wax removed before he could help Bob in any way. He also recommended that Bob have the wax removed every 6 months on a regular basis.

Thursday Bob had an appointment at the cardiologist's office to have his INR checked. It was in the proper range so no change in his dosage of warfarin.

Monday morning Bob had the wax removed from his ears. The doc had some difficulty getting the wax out of the right ear because it was so badly impacted. The hearing aid place at Costco does not open until 10 am. So I called at 10 to see when Robert could do the impressions. Fortunately, someone had cancelled an appointment so we went to Costco at 11:30. So the impressions have been sent off to get new ear inserts made for Bob's hearing aids.

Today Bob had an appointment with the dermatologist. Dr. Cho froze a few spots on Bob's arm and then had a long discussion with him about all the spots on his head, face, and neck. He could freeze all the spots every few months or he could give Bob a prescription for some chemotherapy creme to apply for 2 weeks and then come back for an evaluation. If the creme bothers him too much he can call the doc and stop the creme but would then need to have the spots frozen plus there are 2 spots on his head that would need to be biopsied. Bob decided that he would try the 2 weeks of creme. So Dr. Cho sent an email (fax?) to our local pharmacy for the chemotherapy creme.

We ran an errand on our way home from Dr. Cho's office. After we were home I called the pharmacy to see if they had received the order. They had, but they do not have it in stock. However, they can have it available in the morning. That will work out just fine because we have some of this particular creme left over from when Bob had the first chemotherapy creme last year and it won't expire until Dec. of this year.

So, starting tonight I will be applying the creme using the method suggested by the doc. Theoretically this creme will have fewer side effects than the 2nd, stronger creme had that Bob used last year.