Followup Appointment with the First Surgeon

Darrell went to see Dr. Fernandez today (Monday). He was the first surgeon (from January 17). He was impressed with how good Darrell's voice was sounding compared to a couple of weeks ago. He referred him to Dr. Elizabeth Falkenberg, who is a radiation oncologist. She will be in charge of Darrell's radioactive iodine treatment. Dr. Fernandez said that she will probably put him on a low iodine diet for a little while before the radiation treatment for better success. Darrell has an appointment on Thursday with her. Also, Darrell will revisit Dr. Fernandez in about a month. He just wants to make sure that all the "pieces" are coming together for Darrell's complete recovery, from the cancer to the vocal chords.

Also, Dr. Peters, the surgeon from UAB, wants Darrell to stay in touch with Dr. LaFrentz, the ENT that he saw right after the first surgery and who referred Darrell to Dr. Peters at UAB. He wants Dr. LaFrentz to keep a check on the vocal chords. Darrell has an appointment with him on Friday. We will eventually get in touch with the endicronologists that Dr. Peters referred Darrell to, but that will be after the meeting with the oncologist.

Darrell also had additional bloodwork done today at Crestwood Hospital to check status of his calcium level. He keeps having "numb" experiences, and that is partly due to low calcium. He'll find out those results in a couple of days.

Darrell is not working this week, and we hope this break from work will allow his body to heal up even more from both of the surgeries and get adjusted to the new medicines. It will also allow him to have some down time to "slow" down life just a little and allow for some mental healing and some spiritual reflections. Everything has happened so fast. We're just so grateful to God for being right there with Darrell every step of the way. God has sent the right person at the right time with the right word to encourage Darrell throughout this whole ordeal.

One last note. Several folks have been concerned about how Darrell should be saving his voice, and not whispering. Darrell wants everyone to know that he is NOT whispering, that what you hear is the actual volume of his voice. His left nerve is what is damaged, not his vocal chords, so there is no damage being done to his vocal chords when he talks. That beautiful tenor voice will return again some day. That part is more discouraging than the cancer part, simply because it's more noticable, but we know that the vocal chord left nerve will begin functioning again--we're praying for SOON.