Ups, Downs and In

Dr. Hugh Tildesley

Much of the week was spent with my right leg elevated as I wrestled with one limb being twice the size of the other. The problem of my post thrombotic syndrome has persisted. Fortunately it is not painful but the swelling limited my non-stop walking to 1 ½ blocks. I played golf with a cart on Monday (June 1), mainly because the course was set up exactly the same as it had been for the final round of the PC Financial Open. The course was spectacular, the pins in places we had never seen before and the company as usual irreverent. Predictably swelling in the leg was triggered, thus my usual Wednesday game was compromised.

Brother in law Ted returned to Toronto on Monday, my brother Dave was in town for this past week. Catching up, showing support and staying connected. He is a stock analyst by training and had an impressive knowledge of my disease and an understanding of the many unproven therapies available.

On Tuesday Deborah and I went to an introduction on chemotherapy at the Cancer Agency. The material was well presented and organized, in essence discussing all the side effects of the commonly used drugs. As a doc, no big deal, I know most of this stuff. As a layman I can only guess it scared the hell out of most people.

Since we were already at the agency I thought I would kill 2 birds with 1 stone: A.) Get my blood work done, B) get printouts of recent tests, which had not been sent to me.

A). Blood work is a fairly simple thing, you have a requisition, some tests are ticked off, you go to a lab, get the blood drawn and the results are generated and sent to the recipients marked on the requisition.

I presented by piece of paper to the technician who frowned and said,” I am sorry, it is marked “outside lab “on the requisition, we can not do the test. I replied that, “ It is a perfectly bonafide document, please process it, I am here and I have no intention of going to another lab”. He countered with some bureaucratic blather to which I responded, leaning over the counter,” Please accommodate my request; please remember I am the customer here! “ Without looking up he asked me to take a seat. The blood was drawn, the technician having a much more mature sense of customer service than her colleague.

B). I next stopped at the clinical reception desk asking to speak to my oncologist’s secretary. I asked if she could photocopy 4 pages of reports that I was missing. Her response was: “ I don’t do that.” My reply was an incredulous, “What?” She repeated the mantra. I was told I had to go to the fourth floor, sign some forms and wait. I could only reflect on what my office does,( copy the documents and hand them to the patient!), and how this process needlessly created an impediment and frustration. In BC the law is that patients own their own records, in this case, I was made to feel they were doing me some kind of favour for me to get my property. Outrageous.

The lady on the 4^th floor was pleasant, asked me to fill out a 1-page form and printed the 4 pages I needed. I will again ask Dr. Renouf (as I have done in the past), for my tests to be copied to me.

And so endeth this week’s rant

Friday was catheter insertion day. I am to go on 4 different drugs for treatment and this will require easy and repeatable access to my venous system. The technology has improved greatly over the years, and I thought I would share with you some of the details to remove some of the mystery of the procedure.

Diagram of a Poto Cath

After the usual delays I was taken into the procedure room and was reassured to see a familiar face. Betty, one of the attending nurses, had been an official at many swim meets in Richmond when Donovan was competing and I was coaching. It was nice to be distracted, talking about old times and the many characters we knew. The operation is minor but of course full sterile technique is used. Dr. Dan Liu, entered the room with a smile, explained the procedure, and assured me he would be doing it himself. Within 20 minutes it was all over. A small incision allowed access for the catheter to be inserted into the major vein draining into the heart (superior venocava), and a “port”, to be tunneled under the skin a few inches away. The port allows easy and repeat access to a major vein, minimizing trauma and chances of infection.

All that shows is a little bump under the skin

Past Presidents: 2014

Last night was the Past President’s dinner. I had the distinct privilege of being the president of Point Grey Golf Club last year, and I was honored to receive a photo from the 2014 dinner and my president’s pin. The dinner is a semi formal affair although we all wear our president’s jacket; club tie and many wore the “ Point Grey socks”, which was my gift to last year’s participants.

Dave Tunnicliffe, this year’s president was the host and according to tradition gave a brief state of the union address. He then offered to take questions.

Roger Moores is one of the funniest men I know. Whenever I think I have the latest joke he has heard it! It seems he never forgets a pun, a gift that fills me with envy.

I will never forget a Sunday morning after our usual round. He had finished his breakfast, looked around, took a big sigh and stated, “ I guess I’ll go home and find out what is wrong with me today!” and promptly left to gales of laughter.

Tunnicliffe had brought up the topic of the new golf range (still in planning stages); he had explained in some detail that improvements to the range had scored highest on the recent member survey.

Moores’ hand immediately went up. “ Only one question, where is the range?” He is renowned for never practicing; it took a while for the group to get the joke.

Brad Pinnell is the general manager/CEO of the club. I worked very closely with him last year and learned how hard working, professional, and passionate he is about our club. He is not really a type A personality, but like me a “ malignant type B”, that’s code for a disguised type A.

As we were all finishing our deserts he cruised by Tunnicliffe and whispered, “ Say goodnight Dave”. President Tunnicliffe dutiful rose to end the evening. 

To me it was a "Laugh In "moment.

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin

  

The shows always ended with:

Dan Rowan: Say goodnight Dick

Dick Martin: Goodnight Dick