Consultation with Dr. Cameron

I called Dr. Canto's assistant on Monday to make sure she had done the referral to Dr. Cameron. Bonnie, Dr. Cameron's very nice and helpful assistant called me early Tuesday to schedule. She mentioned that Dr. Cameron's first available appointment was on November 29. I mentioned that we were feeling under some time pressure since diagnosis was so late and asked if there was anything that might open up earlier. She said she would check and call me back later in case there was a cancellation. Bonnie called back around 10 am and mentioned we could see Dr. Cameron today! I learned that it always helps to push and be creative with respect to scheduling - there are often cancellations or other ways to expedite getting an appointment.

Mom, Dad, Grace and I drove back over to JHH for our second visit. Dr. Cameron sees patients at the outpatient center across from the McEldery garage. It was very empty in the waiting room probably due to the holidays. We waited in the examination room and Dr. Cameron came in and introduced himself. He went over my Mom's history with her and she mentioned that she was shocked and never expected this to happen to her. He said that nobody ever does. She asked if there was any hope and he replied: "Sure, there's hope!". We had a really great impression of Dr. Cameron - he seemed very confident and very sharp which was exactly what we wanted to see.

Dr. Cameron looked over her file and said she was a candidate for the Whipple! He said: "How about next Tuesday?". I was unbelievably relieved to hear this. On the other hand I think we were all stunned that scheduling it could be so simple and that it would happen so soon. So we went back home to spend the week together and prepare for the surgery. My father mentioned that we should pray that Dr. Cameron would not have some kind of stressful Thanksgiving family reunion and that he would come back relaxed and well rested for our mother's surgery.