December 1, 2008

We leave for Houston where we will see Dr. Jauni at MD Anderson. It's a full day at the hospital. We will be checking in at 1pm and won't be leaving until 11pm. We check in to the hotel and immediately leave for the hospital. I'm amazed at the medical village in Houston! There must be over 10 hospitals in the area. We finally find MD Anderson and walk into a first floor aquarium! The hospital is huge. We go to the seventh floor, the gastrointestinal floor. My dad checks in and we wait for a while. After 30 minutes my dad gets called in to give all his information. My dad has an initial consultation with the doctor and his assistant while Chris and I wait in the waiting area. Chris goes downstairs to eat and bring Carol and I food. It seems like forever before my dad and Carol come back out from the consultation. It's only about 3pm and my dad has back to back appointments until 10pm. After a few more appointments and lab tests, we go downstairs to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Dad tries a few things to see how they will settle. Every new food, no matter how much he liked it with his 'old stomach,' is a test. Will it settle? Will it react immediately? Will my dad get sick? After eating we have a little bit more time until the CT scan. We go up to the aquarium on the main floor to relax. I have so much work to do for my works' holiday party. It's nearly impossible to try to feed 100 people on a tight budget, but I have to make it work so I start calling any restaurant I think will cut me a good deal. I can see Dad isn't feeling well and is walking around trying to force gas to come up or down. We are wondering if it was something he ate that is not settling well. This goes on for a while and eventually we have to go up for the CT scan. He starts feeling even worse and thinks he's going to vomit. We ask if we can reschedule the appointment for tomorrow and they say of course. We leave MD Anderson in a rush to get back to the hotel before my dad hits rock bottom. This is the worst I've seen him in my life. We finally get back to the hotel and my dad heads straight for the bathroom. Everything he ate that day came back up. After that episode, we all go to sleep exhausted. We later find out from a nurse that olives are high in fat and not a good idea for someone who has recently had stomach surgery. My dad loves olives.