28 October 2013: Monday, Dad gets his, perhaps, last CT scan with contrast this a.m.; brilliant sun and clear day, squirrel on roof, ...

Called the office (302-366-1200) of Stephen Grubbs, oncologist, and got the voicemail  quite cheery, of the scheduler (Krissy Diehl-Adams) and left a message concerning the appointment date of dad post-CT scan with contrast, which will be done this morning at 10 a.m. in the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, 1st floor. She called right back and the time is on Wednesday, 10/30/13, at 11:20 a.m. I have included Doug as an "invitee" on my iPhone calendar, so, hopefully, he will be informed about his CT scan (with contrast) and his appt. with Dr. Stephen Grubbs. 

Imaging of Occupational Lung Disease
(http://radiographics.rsna.org/content/21/6/1371/F24.expansion.html)

Visit went well and quickly to the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center (HGCC) this morning. I filled out his paperwork and even signed for him and though we waited a few minutes, I left for the bathroom and when I came back he had been ushered back for the test.

 

They allowed me to wait for him and a short read of a Bloomberg biz magazine and a near snooze and he was out of the door, no worse the wear and we followed the EXIT signs, were outdoors, I fetched the car and we were off. Just spent some time bookmarking Web Resources listed in a pamphlet I picked up at HGCC on lung cancer and just posted on FB link to a X-Plain slide tutorial on lung cancer. A little simplistic but informative. Did not know that one lung, the right, has 3 lobes, and the left one is smaller and has 2 lobes (Did not know that.).

Just got a call from Jamie O'Hara who reminded me that there is a get-together of JDHS grads from '74 who are meeting at a local tavern, Tyler Fitzgerald's (next to Manor Care Nursing Home) , and he'll pick me up at 6:40 p.m. and we'll go pick up of Joe Coen, who wrestled and played football in HS and who is even thinner, as he works out, today than he was in high school. He is tall, Jamie said, and he lives near St. John Catholic school and church but not in Maplecrest.

The Great Fred Comegys receiving honor
at Conrad HS Hall of Fame induction. 

Found the above on Robin Onizuk's FB page and posted this:
It is so good to see Fred Comegys. What a great guy and such a tremendous photojournalist. He was my inspiration as a budding photo-j back in the late 70s and continued to be my inspiration as he won all kind of awards and decided, even though he could have shot for any publication, anywhere, to stay put in his home Delaware and take such wonderful images of so many events and people. A true giant in the world of newspaper photography. Good to see you Fred.
Butch Comegys, senior staff photographer on The Scranton Times-Tribune newspaper, hometown of Joe Biden, coincidentally, ok'd my FB friend request in record time and I messaged him thusly:

Thanks Butch for accepting, so quickly, my friend request. I knew your iconic father when I was just whippersnapper in the photo-j biz. He was an inspiration and I heard so many stories from the man who taught me so much about newspaper photography, Andy Bruce, who worked for the tiny Newark Weekly Post and oftentimes shot assignments with your father. He was in awe of your dad and told me a few amazing stories of how he got the most incredible images. Anyway, good to touch base on FB. I hope you are well and enjoying your work as the senior staff photog in the hometown of our VP, our own Joe B. from Delaware.

All the best, rudy

Had an incredible exchange via FB messaging with cardiologist David Grubbs, younger brother of dad's oncologist, Stephen Grubbs. We had the following exchange which I shared with dad, resting on the bed behind me, who told me about David's visit to him following his bypass surgery almost 20 years ago.

Are you, David, any relation to Stephen Grubbs, my father's oncologist, who works at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center? And by the way, thanks for liking my photo of my dad and his daughter-in-law. Be well, rudy

55 minutes ago

Stephen and I ARE brothers. He is four years older. Both of us have great memories of your dad's intellectual prowess in being a great diagnostician and nice guy.

Dear David, You are the only one who came to visit my father after his bypass surgery, at least in the cardiology realm, and you are remembered with great fondness by him for this gesture. It says so much and explains your wonderful words, which started to bring tears to my eyes when I just read them to him a few moments ago (he is lying on the bed behind my computer monitor). Thank you so much ... you have given the most touching of gifts to my dad and it touches the heart (literally, in your case, but most importantly, figuratively in the human spirit). All the best to you and yours,

rudy Picked up prescriptions from Pathmark and had great conversation with a great human being and pharmacist, Ed Siracuse, and Daviya (sic), about the move from mom's principal physician -- dad is moving over for Dr. David Maged and trying to determine how to continue and OK the medications and how to get them refilled. He had good and sensible advice. Talk to Dr. Maged to make sure you are on the same page and as I left, with my prescriptions for lisinopril and pravastatin, too, he mentioned that mom's script for metoprolol was on file and all we had to do was call in a refill. Amazing individual ... both love my father and respect him very much.

It is said there is no substitute for experience, and practical experience is exactly what
brothers Stephen (right) and David Grubbs seek to provide undergraduate students
in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering through the
David S. Grubbs Undergraduate Research Award.

I had shared the misunderstanding I'd just had with dad over paying the Mealey Funeral Home bill as I spoke to Lori Mealey on the phone, which he overheard. Don't need to pay yet, I'm not dead, he said in so many words. But it's a psychological thing, so I will wait to pay even though Doug gave me a check for $4500 for the bill and it's not doing anything in my checking account. I will wait.


Met Ann and Steve and the Bassetts, Kirby and Miss Harriet, at the park at the close of my walk with Dancer. She remembered her name and I remembered the wonderful biscuits they made for Dancer three years ago. So nice to touch base with them again. Such an amazing gathering tonight at Tyler Fitzgerald's (it's well documented on Facebook with lots of photos) of a number, over 20, JDHS grads '74 vintage. Talked a long time with Jean Rahaim (nee Thompson) and grabbed her for a combined photo that she was not averse to. (Had such a crush on her in middle school, she really has matured into an even more lovely person, mother, and wife to a very successful courtroom lawyer ... has a daughter who is an art professor in London, England, who just married, last month, in reality, in a civil ceremony that Jean and her husband attended, a Brit named Jack Shakespeare. So good to see so many older but recognizable faces tonight.