Still waiting . . .

Phil has to have an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. We're so remote, and the surgeon who does these procedures only practices at Blue Mountain Hospital on Mondays and Fridays. Right now he's on vacation and won't be back till February 7. We have a consult scheduled that day, but that's just too long to wait just to discuss what happens next. I want to take Phil straight to Huntsman Cancer Institute but they won't accept new patients unless these procedures have been done and they have a cancer diagnosis.

Yesterday I got radical and told Michele we wanted to go directly to Huntsman, regardless of their policy, and would she please fight for that. I told her they would probably just repeat all the tests and we didn't want that. We want to move fast and we want the best possible treatment. We want a seamless continuum of care and that will be easier if Huntsman is involved from the start. Michele said she'd try.

In the meantime, our daughter Liz suggested contacting Dr. John Hayes, who successfully treated Phil five years ago for prostate cancer. Phil contacted his office. My mom thought of calling my brother, Terry who practices at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez. As a podiatrist, he has a lot of connections and he contacted Dr. Madison, their surgeon, but that hasn't panned out. And Phil said he might try finding someone in Moab, but so far, no luck there, either.

Last night Michele called to report that she found a doctor at University of Utah Hospital who agreed to look at all Phil's records to decide about accepting him as a new patient. So Michele contacted Dr. Hayes and was waiting for his files so she could send everything together. If Phil gets treated at University Hospital he shouldn't have to go through the tests again. University Hospital and Huntsman use the same electronic files, we'll be in the system and Phil can be transferred directly to Huntsman.

Still waiting for any word on that . . .