Deductibles met...already!?!

January has started out with a bang!!  And low and behold we have probably broken our record with shortest time to meet our medical deductible :)  

I knew we had a week full of dr appointments and hopefully get a few questions answered.  Well, we all know that Kinson couldn't be left out!  He felt like he wanted to be added to the dr schedule this week so he invited the flu to invade our house.  It was way more rough than I was prepared for.  Luckily, he is on the mends.

Cohen met with Dr Carron Monday morning.  Her left ear tube has been out since May and sat in her canal for a few months along with a hole in her eardrum.  In October, it finally fell out, the hole healed, and the eardrum had healed retracted.  Dr Carron wanted to give it a few weeks to see if it would stabilize itself.  Well in true Cohen-fashion, it did not cooperate.  So she will have T-tubes (permanent sewed in tubes) placed in on Friday.  After 6 surgeries for tubes and now knowing she will continue to need them for several more years, he decided a more long term option was needed.  I had heard about these from several of her team members and hoping this will help the drainage issues in her ears.  While she is under, he will also carterize some blood vessels in her sinuses to hopefully decrease some nosebleeds she has been having.  As with any of her surgeries, we are nervous but amazed at how resilient her little body is.

I met with my surgeon this afternoon.  I am not sure that we got any questions answered other than I know what surgery I am having.  He has decided to take out the lymphnodes in my right side of my neck.  He is still very cautious about it.  He brought to my attention the risk involved with neck surgeries--yes, he is always concerned about the risks, However in my case he is even more cautious.  Because of my amputation and limitations, he in no way wants to limit me anymore.  Crazy that these worries never crossed my mind but I love it that it crossed his!!  Ideally, he would do a lymphnode resection (incision from ear to ear) and remove as many lymphnodes as he could.  However, he is very uncomfortable entering my left side for "exploratory" reasons.  If we need to in the future after a diagnosis, so be it, but for now it is off limits.  The risk involved is nerve damage that can paralyze my arms.  I will still have the procedure under general anesthesia but I will not be "paralyzed."  This way throughout the procedure he can tests my nerves to ensure they are working properly.  It will be a small incision in my neck and only a few days recovery.  

We talked extensively about my thyroid.  He saw it with his own eyes and got path reports and sees no reason to remove it.  The oncologist disagrees and feels as though the inflammation it causes scews my scans and until it is removed we can not rule out that inflammation. Right now, I am leaning towards conservative and so it will stay.  We also toyed with the notion of removing my spleen.  He also agreed that it is the only thing guaranteed to give an accurate biopsy.  However, it is an organ.  There is only 1 spleen.  It does have a role in my body.  So, we will do some heavy discussing and thinking before I have to make that decision.  

So surgery is lined up for January 22, again at UMC.  

Whew!  What a week and it's only Tuesday!  Tomorrow I am going to go with my uncle as he has a heart procedure done and Cohen gets to have her 4 year old check-up.  So if you are keeping up, 6 dr appts this week!!!  And just to throw in a curve ball, I had a root canal done yesterday afternoon :)