My Executive Assistant

It was highly recommended by friends at work that I get someone to accompany me for my cancer appointments.  This is helpful as your head isn't quite in the right frame of mind as you're likely finding out some dizzying facts (ie: you have cancer) and what to expect, how to prepare for tests, etc.  A second set of ears is always good and someone who can take notes during the appointments is always helpful.

This sort of happened on its own and my wife prepared a calendar, took notes at appointments and had questions prepared when we first discovered I had cancer.  I sat there in the doctor's appointments digesting the bad news and unbottoning my pants and bending over a barrel whenever required.  My mother is also a retired nurse so she accompanied us to pretty much every doctor's appointment before the radiation and chemo started.  Between my mother and wife of 16 years, I was in good shape.

My wife calls herself my Executive Assistant.  Pretty funny since she's always made much more money than I have but since we had kids, she hasn't worked in 3 years.  This is a part time job in itself and the cancer treatment is nearly a full time job for me if you include the increased 4 hours of sleep I now require every day.

Happy Valentine's Day, Erinn. 
The kids ate the Smarties so your cupcake is
decorated with my diarrhea pills.

I've filled out a lot of forms during this ordeal and I've kept a copy of everything.  An interesting question that comes up is my past medical history.  When was I last in the hospital and for what.  This includes tonsil removals when I was ten years old and everything in between.  I figured the Ontario Health Card would have a database of all those items.  What a laugh!  There is no such database.  Doctors don't necessarily have copies of reports which they need.  For example, nobody has received my MRI report so I had wisely left the hospital with my own CD copy.  (And, that appointment came, thanks to my Executive Assistant.)  Now we just burn a CD for whatever doctor we're about to see.  That's how they've all gotten my MRI results.  And they all say thanks.  Some other reports, mind you, have made it across to the necessary people.  It is just not a given that necessary reports will make it through to the right people.

Another thing to track (thanks Marg!) is medication taken and reactions.  Thankfully for me, that's been a rather short list.  I hope the list doesn't grow.  But, the point is that there is no database of what has worked for the patient and what hasn't worked.  It is up to the patient to keep track.

Now that I write this, I just remembered I haven't taken my chemo pills.  Oops.  My Executive Assistant has the night off.