Follow-up Appointment
Wednesday 13th August 2008
We figured that we knew the routine by now, so arrived in plenty of time for our 11:30 appointment. Waited our turn at the main desk, again handed over the out of date card and received our sticky labels. Then down the corridor to wait outside of room 13. After a short wait, that seemed like an eternity, we were ushered inside to see Doctor Gomez, a cheerful looking round faced bespectacled man with a small moustache of around 50 years of age. 
He looks serious as reads through Derek’s notes and tells us that the biopsy shows that the tumour is indeed cancerous. They have also scanned his bladder from inside and are happy that there is no sign of cancer there. Patiently he explains the procedure to completely remove the kidney, adrenal gland, nearby lymph glands and the urethra. This last bit is necessary as the cancer is sitting over the area where the urethra joins the kidney, so this is to ensure that no cancer cells migrate down to the bladder during or after surgery. I ask the doctor about smoking and he tells us that the type of cancer that Derek has is directly attributable to smoking. After the operation he will have only one kidney, so he must look after it very well. He wants Derek in as soon as possible, but once again we first have to get the okay from the insurance people. The hospital will phone us as soon as they know to make the appointment to come in. It is really annoying that before each procedure we have to get the insurer’s permission and that generally takes a week. You would think that once they had agreed the the first one, that the rest would just carry on, but no. So back home to await the phone call.