Pirates Board Creola- Sorta

Pirates, of a sort, (microscopic, sneaky and threatening) have slowed Creola's exploration of the vast south pacific. Invading sometime in the spring of 2009, the interlopers stowed away until early September when most were driven out of Bill's right shoulder by the scabbard-wielding expertise of surgeon, Dr. Emais Roberts in Palau.

Seeking to identify the nature of the intruders, the chunk of shoulder was flown to a pathology lab in Hawaii. By mid September the skull and cross bones-waving rapscallions were pinned down- Skin Cancer... a malignant melanoma. Now melanomas are dastardly bastards compared to other skin cancers. AYE MATEY...but they are dealing with Creolites here, and the scalawags have bitten off a bit more than they can chew.

A search was immediately begun for pirate-fighting crew. Having previously planned to visit St. Luke's Hospital in Manila, Philippines for periodic medical checks, electronic semafores requested the identification of mercenaries willing to engage in the battle. The first to join the crew was Dr. Charity Charisse Gorospe, Director of the Cancer Institute at St.. Luke's. 

On October 21, 2009, Bill and Dr. Gorospe met to schedule an immediate PET/CT scan, but had it postponed due to hardware issues. We attributed this to sabotage from the stealth forces of the pirates,  and since a weekend was involved, decided to have Linda join Bill in Manila so  she might complete her anticipated check-up. 

Two in a lovely, and I mean lovely, room is much more fun than one with the O'Reilly and Hannity on Fox News 24/7. (What is it about Irish men? Wait...I am one.) I know lovely hospital room is one of those oxymorons, but this was NICE. Besides, "60-somethings" making out in a hospital room without getting caught by housekeeping, doctors-on-rounds or vital-sign seeking nurses in tightly-tailored white uniforms is as much fun as not getting caught by your parents when 16...I know, TMI!

Linda's Executive Check-up required the entire weekend and Bill had several tests as well, as his check-up became modified. New, Pirate-hunting mercenaries joined the ranks as crew: Dr. Nick Cruz, cardiology, Doctors Frez and Tan, dermatology, Dr. Santiago, nuclear medicine and PET/CT,  Dr, Uygongco, surgical oncology, Dr, Lopez, pathology, Dr. Sibulo, plastic surgery and Drs. Bello and Ang, oncology. Creola was getting pretty crowded with crew! Many are shown here. The patient is the really happy one in the Hawaiian shirt The others are all worried for him

The nursing staff is  outstanding at St. Luke's Hospital in Manila. They are beautifully trained, excellent communicators and ready to meet every need with genuine smiles.  If you have to be woken at 3 AM, these are people you want to do it.

After an angiogram on October 26, to identify the cause of a small irregularity in the EKG during exercise, the complication of a possible stent for a partial blockage of the left circumflex artery to the heart was discussed. For those of you who may not know, a stent is a stainless steel wire mesh tube that is inserted into the artery to hold it open at the point of constriction allowing the blood to pass without issue The question became., "To stent or not to stent?" Tha answer would not come for several months.

The same day a PET/CT Scan was completed in an attempt to identify any lesions that may have developed in other parts of the body, better known as the dreaded metastisis. 

Results: no evidencce of lesions anywhere in the body, Nope, not one in any of the 256 "slices."   ...BUT three unidentifiable, non-calcified nodes appeared in the lungs.  Hmm, sort of a mixed bag?

October 27 meeting with Dr. Gorospe...we need to remove the lesion on your shoulder by surgery and perhaps remove the sentinel lymph node to make sure you are clear of melanoma.  Dr. Uygongco, the surgeon, states that he needs original slides of the biopsy from Hawaii Pathology in order to confirm the diagnosis before he will do surgery. That makes sense. How can that be done and how can we do it fast? This gets interesting...at least to me. Aw...we'll just FedEX it...

In the Philippines Halloween is a huge holiday and it is followed by All Saints Day, both of which occurred on the weekend, making Monday a holiday and a three-day weekend. The Holiday-Delay was in force. The rotation of the earth gets involved here. It seems that the time is not the same everywhere around the earth, so to order slides from Hawaii, one must get up at 3 AM on Tuesday so that the slides will arrive before Halloween, and call using the Skype from the from hospital room 4000. "And", I remember saying in my sleep, "please send them overnight."  Hey, Americanos, you got WIFI in your hospital room?

To Be Continued