My Trip To Pittburgh

Well my turn around trip to Pitsburgh turned into 8 days.  I got there the day as planned and of course screwed up my plane ticket.  I actually flew into Phillidelphia.  I do not know why I did that when I booked it but must not have been paying attention to closely when I got it.  It was only a minor inconvience so I just rented a car there and took the five hours to drive to Pittburg.  I am glad I did as I did get to see some really nice farms.  Anyway my first appointment was the PET scan then after that they had me do several more over the next 4 days.  Then I met with Dr Luketich and three other surgeons he works with in his office.  I have to admit I liked him before he said a word.  He looked like he was ready for a vacation and was sporting a three day growth of beard.  You could have dropped him into Alaska and he would have looked like he belonged here.  Forst thing he said was I want you to know this was not caused by smoking.  It was caused from the severe acid reflux I had about 12 years ago and had surgically corrected.  He said that the results of the PET were very good with no sign of the tumor and the test from the scope they did showed just the residual redness expected from the radiation tratments.  He then explained the benefits of doing the surgery but as others have stated there are no guarantees it will not come back But told me that I am not at the lower end of success rates but will be at the higher end becuase I scored higher the average on all the testing they had done on me.  I am not good at the medical terms they used and am saying im my terms what we discussed.  Anyway he said there was not a real hurry like we need to do this tomorrow like my surgeon here was saying so we settled on a day the third week of July to do the minimally evasive surgery.  I am much more comfortable with that.  He also wants me to do two more chemo treatments.  I meet with them this Friday and then a second one three weeks later to make sure we get any that might be hiding.  Alaska Airlines was fantastic and becuase I was there for medical reason and even though my ticket was not changable they did it anyway for me and charged me nothing and even gave me a better return trip then I had orgionally.  The hotel I stayed at was 12 miles from UPMC and they also gave me a hefty discount becuase of the reason I was there.  I will be staying there in July when I go back and told them so.  I swithed rental car companies becuase the one I got in Phillidelphia wanted an arm and leg to keep it for another week so switched to another that was reasonable and even got a much nicer car.  Other then the travel arrangements becuase of my mistake in booking everything else about the trip went off without a hitch and all of my appointemnts were set.  I did not have to do any paperwork any where as Dr Lukatiches office had already done everything.  I had no long waits and was in and out much quicker then I would be here in Alaska which was a realy surprise. Steve