Thursday October 16...11:30 pm

Robert saw a Urologist today. He was referred to one because of the kidney stones that showed on the scans taken in the hospital. He does have one quite large one (1 cm), but the Dr. doesn't think it will move - in fact, it appears to be embedded in the "meat" of the kidney, much to the surprise of the Dr - he acted like he hadn't seen that before. The smaller ones will probably pass - hopefully painlessly. He did order an X-ray and Robert will have a follow-up appointment with him next week.
After we went home, he learned his CT scan needed to be done this afternoon, so Robby drove him back to Salem for that! Some days all he does is go to appointments and figure out how many carbs he has eaten. Robert almost spent as much time in Dr's offices and X-ray rooms as I spent working today. He had to drink some awful liquid for today's scan, but fortunately it was a little more tasty than the "vanilla smoothie" he had last time.
The best part of going to see the urologist today was when he asked if we had ever seen Robert's pancreas during this pancreatitis episode (he was looking at the scan taken back on Sept 6). We said no, so he showed us what he called an "incredibly inflamed" pancreas. Finally we saw the BEAST that caused all this trouble. To be honest, we either aren't easily impressed at this point in time or we just don't know how to "read" scans...we were impressed, however, with how impressed the Dr was with it all. He could not stop talking about how large the pancreas was and how amazing it is that Robert is doing so well.
Yesterday Robert saw his endocrinologist. He was quite impressed with Robert's blood sugar levels and especially with Robert's careful documentation of them. He only made minor adjustments to his insulin doses. The only bad news from his office was learning the syringes Robert uses do not come with shorter needles! Oh, and the other bad news: he probably won't be getting an insulin pump because of the high doses he has to take - he would have to refill the pump too often.
Tomorrow Robert has a physical therapy appointment and sees his primary care physician. Included in that visit is a blood draw to check the levels of a whole bunch of things.
Robert is getting around so much better and gaining more strength. He actually drove a short distance today...Robby was with him and after making one stop he convinced Dad he wasn't quite ready to drive to Salem, so Robby took over! I think "Dad's" driving made Robby nervous! Oh well, Robby's driving has made dad nervous plenty of times too.
And so life goes on at the Danielian house...in some ways it is simpler and I think I like it.
Now, to just keep it that way...

~Jeanette