Post-stent checkback Monday
with cardiologist Dr. Edward Spangenthal is my first visit to Roswell Park
Cancer Institute that lasts less than an hour. And now that spring is here in
full flower, it’s the first visit where the cold air blows out from the main lobby
instead of gusting inward.
There’s almost no wait
before a nurse takes my blood pressure and pulse, well within the normal range,
and assesses my blood oxygen – 99 percent, up from pre-stent levels. Another
nurse listens to my chest with a stethoscope and asks questions about
medications and side effects.
Then Dr. S. himself
steps in, does his own stethoscope tour, and says that things are good. He
wants to keep me on blood thinners for three more weeks while the stents heal
in, then go off them for a week prior to the bladder surgery. I’d resume them later
when the urology surgeon, Dr. Guru, gives the green light.
That puts my big date
sometime in early June, exact time TBA. We get to speak a little later with one
of Dr. Guru’s assistants, who says that he does surgery on Mondays, Tuesdays
and sometimes Wednesdays. Earliest date, then, would be June 1.
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