the call

After numerous calls to the medicals here, things finally changed. It had to be March 2008 when the phone rang and it was MD Anderson. The person on the other end, called to advise us of our appointment time with the surgeon in Houston. I was hoping for radiation, but our doctors here told us surgery would probably be the solution. And the surgeon in Houston had to be one of the top in the world. A world class surgeon for these two small benign tumors?

Our doctor here said we would need an exceptionally skilled surgeon, and if MD Anderson would take the case, we should jump at the chance. Not sure of why we needed such a skilled surgeon, I pressed the question with our doctor here. He explained that the right frontal lobe was cut during the first surgery, and that now one of these tumors was on the left side. If both the right and the left side of the frontal lobe are cut then there was a risk of a condition called abulia. We never heard that term before. The doctor explained that would be like a person with no emotion. What kind of quality of life would that be? That's why we needed such a skilled surgeon. It would be a dangerous surgery. Someone had to get to the tumors without cutting the brain.

A million questions crossed my mind. Sorry to say, none of them were about Marie's surgery. I wondered about health insurance. I wondered about loss of income, how lone we would be out of work. I wondered about plane fares, hotels, meals. I know it seems crazy, but we had been through this for almost eight years. A major illness is expensive. Very expensive. People will generally say, "I could imagine your medical bills". The truth is it encompasses much more. Copay's, out of pocket expenses, hotels, travel, meals, medication, loss of income for both the ill person and the caregiver. It could also include items to convert your home to accommodate someone disabled from the disease. The list of expensive seems to go on and on.