A gauntlet of doctors

Richard has completed more than a trifecta of doctor visits this week. Four in four days; I am assuming that is a quadfecta. It should be noted that Richard did these all by himself. I worked for a change.

His Monday appointment was with Dr. Thomas, the VoiceDoctor in Portland. This is the specialist that knows all there is to know about vocal chords and other things vocally oriented. It seems that there is a good chance that the nerve that has paralyzed Richard’s vocal chords may repair itself. And that is the preferred option, as the surgery is far from ideal and eliminates the possibility of the nerve fixing itself. And there is a temporary procedure (lasts about 6 months) that will help. (It usually takes over a year for the nerve to heal.) Richard told me all about it. It starts with a huge hypodermic needles chock full of some animal fat and then they ram it into your esophagus and then I get all woozy and have no clue what Richard said after that.

Tuesday was Richard’s regular physician, Dr. Harris. Apparently he just wants to be kept in the loop.

Wednesday was back to Portland to see Dr. Sanborn, his Oncologist. She said he was doing really as good as can be expected. Apparently the paralyzed vocal chords are a rare side effect of the radiation therapy, but it happens.

And today was the local ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr. Olsen. He said that it can be a couple of weeks before Richard really knows how much good the big needle to the throat does. But he was optimistic.

It is what it is.