Rudy had a morning lab test to make sure his platelets were improving. They weren't. They were worse. Rudy was already home when they got the results. They called and told him to go right back over to be checked.
He was sent to their Quality of Life department, which is basically an onsite urgent care. They checked him from head to toe with a notable detour in the end zone. Rudy has been making jokes all evening about how two women got personal with him today. That man can find humor in the most unlikely places!
As for the platelets, this drama is getting old. His numbers are at 12. If they go to 10, he'll be sent to the infusion room for platelets. We thought we were going there today. In fact, they got his port all ready for it, when the change was made. The magic number for Dr. Thompson is 10 . I'm not sure when they'll want to retest him, but I'd be willing to bet they'll call us tomorrow. Dr. Thompson's team is monitoring Rudy very carefully.
We spent time on 4 different floors at CTCA today. Rudy's doctor (and the whole lung unit) just moved to new offices on the 4th floor. We went to Quality of Life on the 2nd floor, only to find they'd been moved to the 3rd floor. And of course, most everything else is on the 1st floor. The lung unit has it's own wing. When we first went up, we found out the main elevator was not the one to use to get to the new lung unit. However, it was really great that we took the wrong one. It opened right in front of the office of a lady I have been trying to find time to speak with - Bridget, the insurance / finance person.
I have seen comments online about CTCA not accepting Medicare. I now suspect those comments are by people who either are misinformed or worse, have less than honest motives. But I wanted to talk to someone who would truly know. Rudy has been looking into getting on disability but the thought of possibly ending up with an insurance CTCA wouldn't accept scared the heck out of us. Bridget assured us that's not the case. They work with Medicare all the time - many of their patients are on it. She gave us more info as well, but the bottom line, he can apply for disability without worrying. It's a good thing. Now that we are so happy at CTCA, they'd have a hard time getting us to leave!
We're newbies to this Social Security & disability stuff. Rudy rushed closing his company when he got his cancer diagnosis. He's about to turn 62, which makes him eligible for early retirement. We just figured he'd get a little less each month and we'd deal with it. With disability, he'll get the amount he would be eligible for if he'd retired at full retirement age. It's enough of an increase to make us very happy with this news.
It feels odd to share all that. I still have the old school "do not discuss finances publicly" ingrained in me. However, I hate seeing misinformation circulating. My little blog won't be seen by that many, but maybe someone will find this information helpful.
That's all for today. Prayers please! We'd love to see Rudy make some good grades on his next blood test.
