January 29th

Scott and I drove to Iowa City today for a meeting with Dr. Chaloupka, the neuro doctor and some random people that came in too. Martha, Debbie were also here.

While waiting, I found a hospital in St. Paul that has a doctor named Eric Nussbaum. The hospital has a specialty in hard to treat aneurysms. I read some case studies and this doctor seemed to be what we needed. I called up there and spoke with his clinical nurse and she was very nice. I gave her the whole she-bang and she put me in contact with Dr. Nussbaum's nurse practitioner. I left her a voicemail and she is going to call me back. We were so excited about this place and this doctor.

When our meeting started, Chaloupka started by saying that he is doing everything he can to get in touch with who he feels is the most qualified to do the surgery. There is a man in Chicago, Phoenix, St. Louis and San Francisco. One of these doctors trained the others and they all are top notch surgeons. He explained that trying the methotrexate was the best and least toxic option and it didn't work, so there really is no other option. He is becoming steroid resistant and even if there was an experimental drug to try, the hospital would have to approve it, insurance would have to approve it and some other group of people would have to approve it. Apparently you just can't try a drug without a good scientific reason.

I brought up Mayo and he didn't think that they can do anything and I also brought up Dr. Nussbaum at the aneurysm center and he politely brushed that guy off, so he is very familiar with him and we got the impression he didn't like him.

Chaloupka is going to do what he can to keep him here for a few more days and this weekend I will be looking into nursing facilities. He assured us that he will still be working for us if we get kicked out of here, that moving won't effect the treatment plan.

We are leaving now, so I will finish this when I get home. They are giving him a bath and kicking us out.