My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

126
pull together. The day went from normal to high gear.
My youngest brother, Michael, helped my mom get my dad ready to go to the hospital. In
the meantime, my other brother, Brian, was still recovering from his Saturday surgery.
Brian wasn't feeling great. In the midst of it all, my mom had to go to the doctor. To top it
off, my youngest daughter, Bel, stopped getting ready for school and started complaining
she didn't feel good. She was off to the doctor. I had a regularly scheduled doctor's
appointment.
My dad was scheduled to have a PEG feeding tube and a new (smaller) stent put in at
noon, and was supposed to be at the hospital for 10:30. So the morning went like this:
8:45 My wife, Dana, took Sara to school
8:45 I took Eva to school
9:00 I went to Home Depot to buy a wireless doorbell for dad to use as a call button
(press downstairs, rings upstairs)
9:15 Mom went to the doctor
9:40 I went to the doctor
9:45 Mom drops off an antibiotics prescription at CVS, they say they can't fill it fast
enough so she can get home in time to take dad to the hospital.
10:00 Michael had arranged to have a supplier come over and evaluate whether a chair
lift can be installed on the staircase. Michael handles the visit, but it doesn't look like it is
going to be something that makes sense to do.
10:10 My wife Dana volunteers to pick up my mom's prescription at CVS and take it to
the hospital.
10:15 I pull up at my parents' house as they're putting my dad in the car
10:16 Youngest brother Michael drives my dad's car to the hospital; I drive my car to the
hospital; my mom drives my dad in her car to the hospital. Turns out we actually needed
the flexibility of multiple cars, so lack of carpooling was good
10:30 Shuster caravan arrives at hospital
10:45 Dana arrives with the prescription. CVS gave her my dad's prescription, not my
mom's. My mom needs those antibiotics. Dana heads back to CVS to get the
prescription. Dana doesn't complain at all, which is more than I could have pulled off.
11:15 Dana arrives with the correct prescription. We discuss registering Sara (our middle
daughter) for Kindergarten, which apparently requires camping out at the school by 6:00
a.m. tomorrow in order to avoid getting assigned to a school all the way across town. We
realize that we have a problem because Bel's doctor appointment is 2:00 pm and we
won't have a free person to pick up my oldest daughter Eva at 3:05 p.m. Dana calls
Margaret (Eva's mom, my ex-wife) and she cancels her doctor's appointment so Eva can
take the school bus to her house. I'm super-thankful for a very functional blended family.
11:45 Dad is having pain and gets a painkiller via IV (the IV went it without much
difficulty, a good thing)
12:00 Dad is taken to the endoscopy suite, then a bit later to radiology where the
procedure will be done.
12:05 We all talk with Dr. Lewis. Michael, mom and I are sent to the waiting room.
12:10 We wait.
1:00 Dr. Lewis gets us, and tells us the procedure went well. He walks us back to where
dad is. We ask him what the biopsy results were from the sample he took on Friday when
removing the stent, and he said he didn't have them yet, but that Dr. Flam would have
them. Mom puts in a call to Dr. Flam asking for them.
1:10 Michael goes home to keep an eye on Brian. Mom and I wait for dad to wake up.
1:30 Dad wakes up, we visit with him, he's barely awake. We go back to the waiting room
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer