Thursday, July 29, 2021

Update on Lou

Lou has been less than thrilled with the quality of the medical care he’s getting in Silver City. Confusion, unresponsiveness, changing personnel. So he arranged to get a second opinion. After some false starts (including learning the oncologist in Deming is a quack who has been fined millions of dollars), he was finally connected with a very competent oncologist in Las Cruces. Sometimes it’s true that bigger cities have better doctors.

Lou had a bad spell last week. Body aches, joint pains, headaches, shortness of breath, exhaustion, loss of appetite, weight loss. He shared that with the Las Cruces oncologist who said his lung tumors aren’t large enough to be causing breathing problems. They talked about the heart problems that led to the discovery of the lung cancer. The oncologist, with the caveat she wasn’t a cardiologist, thought his current symptoms were more likely to be heart-related. She ordered some tests.

On the brighter side, she concurred with the radiologist that the cancer hasn’t grown or spread since the previous scans.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the update. Unfortunately that doctor situation is true all over the USA from my experience.

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  2. I'm seeing Dr. Vanessa Cole Marin,cardiologist, at Presbyterian in Albuquerque.

    Dr. Morales, carduologist, at Pima Heart in Tucson is good.

    A transradial catheterization to stent runs around $120,000.00. With Medicare my co-pays are 20%.

    Presbyterian has a financial assistance prg that may be of help.

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  3. After talking with the doctors at UNM Hospital, seeing Dr. Khoo (highly recommended) several times, I finally settled on Dr. Vanessa Cole Marin at Presbyterian. Pres has a financial assistance prg that covers my co-pays.

    Dr. Morales at Pima Heart in Tucson did my transradial catheterization. He's good. A stress test and angiogram are the first couple of diagnostic tools, but a transradial catheterization is needed for a definitive diagnosis. After everyone got their cut, mine cost $120,000.00. Come to find out, St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson does NOT offer financial assistance. Next time I'll pick another.

    Good luck.

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