Hi Petey,

After just spending 5 hours at the hospital with my hubbie this Sunday, I came home to read up on current postings.

When we went through the diagnostic process, we were given an army of people to work with. In the beginning I collected more biz cards than I knew what to do with. Eventually, I typed up all my contacts on one page with a synopsis of who to call for what.

In each area (surgery, RT and chemo) we have a talented team consisting of a doctor, a nurse practicioner and a nurse. We have specific instructions on who to call for what type of symptoms.

During the week I can easily get a hold of anyone I need. Off hours, I have a triage number for each of the 3 areas that I can call with questions...or if any one of a specific lists of symptoms (from a list they gave me) develop I am required to call one of the triage lines.

The triage lines always gets me a call back from the appropriate doc on his team within minutes.

This morning's 7 a.m. call had to do with my husband's fever that was 102 degrees. We spent hours at the hospital. He had blood panels taken and was examined and tested for various things. And, even though there was an attending in the chemo area, our MO wanted us to stay until he could get to the hospital and look at my husband personally.

All in all, this goes down as the 3rd fluke-ish fever that they can not explain. But, they verified his blood panel was good and they checked for various infections...like strep. And, everything came back perfectly.

My husband did not enjoy going to the hospital on his day off, but we do have peace of mind that everything is ok.

Our docs take everything so seriously...night or day.

I understand why you would post here as getting other people's perspectives and reassurances are invaluable.

But, if it were me, in addition to posting here, I'd also have a phone call into one of the oncology triage lines if my husband had something that was doubling in size within the time frame you described.

One of the things that I learned is that even when they don't ask me to bring my husband in for an extra visit, they are better prepared to spend more time with Dan and do more tests on our next visit if I call ahead.

Do you have people on your medical staff who you can reach or who can be paged on the weekends?

Wishing you the best of care,