Deja Vu...All Over Again!

Meet Woody's orthopedic surgeon (tonight's photo)! Just kidding! This doctor met us at the registration desk. Ok...it was deja vu...all over again for the doctor and for us. When the doctor came in, she said that it had been a while. I mentioned that he really shouldn't be here and she agreed. She had told the Fellow before entering the room that Woody's case was an example of treating 4th stage melanoma aggresively and why it was worth it at times...because Woody was still sitting in her office after all these years. She hadn't seen him since 2009 and statistically he really shouldn't have been sitting in her office today. Okay, now on to what she plans to do about Woody's leg. She feels that the bone is damaged due to the radiation...she said that she could just look at the x-ray and tell that there was sick bone there along with the fracture. Her plan is to go in and get rid of a lot of the sick bone and replace it with cement and then attach a plate to the bone. She does not think that there is any cancer, but will be testing to make sure that none of what she takes out is cancerous. She said that she will put a wrap around it and he would be able to walk on it right away. The surgery will be a week from Friday on June 17th. Tomorrow we will go back to Vanderbilt for an MRI of that part of his leg. On Friday we will go for his pre op visit at another facility where Vanderbilt sees patients. We are in the loop of Vandy all over again. I am having deja vu feelings about the surgery. I remember a very long day sitting in the Vandy waiting room. We did not ask if this was going to be an out patient or a stay over. I imagine that they really don't know and it will depend on the time of day for the surgery and how he does overall. We will be getting up with the birds in the morning for an early MRI...we like those appointments early...hopefully miss most of the rush hour traffic and he is usually their first patient. Today's appointment went quite quickly. We got their early and they called us in early. They took him for x-rays before seeing the docs. A Fellow came in and talked with Woody first and then he and Dr. Holt came in. We were "only" away from home for about 5 1/2 hours...a relatively short Vanderbilt day. We got home, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed out the door for Elijah's first tournament game. His team won so they will play again on Friday. That about sums up our day...now to take a deep breath and head into all the upcoming appointments and then surgery.