After today's visit, wish I had started this 6 months ago, instead of the other place I went closer to home. The head of the program, a woman with a docorate in Nursing and Nutrician, and formerly taught medical chemistry for 15 years, spent 2 hours going over my vast medical history. Then I spent 1/2 hour meeting the physical trainer that she assigned to me. I start 2 days a week starting next Monday, and then when I am stronger, they will move it up to 3 days a week.
She took down everything in detail. My past cancers, and their treatments, my previous time with her facility, my entire PC history right down to each PSA score, etc. She said she had never met a patient that could rattle off a total of 14 years of medical history in such detail without writing any of it down. She asked me what I did, and I told her basically accounting, and she said that figured, that all accounting nerds were OCD about detail.
This is a dedicated oncology rehab center, I am surprised that I have never heard of any other guy going through a program like this except for me. Most insurances cover it easily. They have all state of the art equipment, hydrotherapy, yoga, spiritual help if needed, full tiDme oncology dieticians, etc. She totally understood the severity of my faitgue, and how I needed to get boosted up in strength and stamina for whatever lie ahead for me. My stay with them has been approved indefinitely, as long as needed.
The head person is a two-time breast cancer survivor and is still alive 11 years later with Stage 4 cervical cancer, which is amazing to me. So she knows what it's like to be on the patient side.
This won't solve all my issues and problems, but I feel it was a pro-active thing to do on my end. After leveling out a bit, I have taken a sharper downhill turn in the past 6 weeks.
As I start getting involved with this program, I will share some key points with folks here. And if any of you need this level of service, don't be afraid to mention it to your doctor.
David in SC