Today John saw his “new” Tampa General pulmonologist for the second time (Dr. Clum). We are very impressed with him.

Can you imagine a doctor who says, “You’re color is better. When I saw you last month, you didn’t look as good as you do now.”

How could he remember John that specifically?

He had John do some tests and vows to keep John from deteriorating further. Those tests are the benchmarks. We’re all working toward a goal of keeping him from getting worse. He explained to us that it may take a year to recover from John’s August pancreatitis and gall bladder problems. The double pneumonia is also slow recovery problem.

John’s oxygen equipment wasn’t working correctly last night. He couldn’t get his oxygen numbers up to acceptable levels. This morning, we took off for Tampa and when he arrived at the office building next to Tampa General, he nearly collapsed. (He was using the same regulator that he’d used last night.) His oxygen was really low. We switched him to a better regulator and he’s doing fine.

This next month he has appointments with a new cardiologist and also a new rheumatologist. Hopefully together they’ll all keep him doing ok.

So glad we found Dr. Clum. We’ll be back to see him in a month.