dr. casale
like all other angell physicians, dr. casale gave sullivan a very thorough examination.
she spent a good amount of time feeling around his braccial plexus and tricep areas.
dr. casale asked whether sullivan had incurred any trauma to the body. believing trauma to be defined as something major and blunt (car accident, fall down the stairs, etc.) i quickly answered no; but dr. casale informed me that trauma can even be a slight tweak of the body perhaps manifested through a quick pivot turn while running, a leap over something that clipped the foot and other such more minor situations. given sullivan’s high activity level prior to july 31, any of these more minor “traumas” could have happened…we just don’t know.
dr. casale shared that even if sullivan’s malady was to be trauma-related in the tricep, the inevitable outcome, amputation, would still be necessary given the intense, irreversible nature of the muscle atrophy. this dialogue was one of great hope as it offered a counter to the cancerous nerve sheath tumor diagnosis.
we asked dr. casale to carefully examine sully’s three legs to make sure they appeared healthy, strong and able to bear additional weight.
while doing manipulations of his hips, sullivan showed discomfort. dr. casale ordered an x-ray of the hips to make sure there was nothing serious creating pain in that area. the x-ray showed mild hip dysplasia – but nothing all to debilitating or concerning given the impending procedure.
after the x-ray, dr. casale took us into the imaging review room and showed us sullivan’s hip x-ray and pointed out the deterioration and other such parts. she then said, have you seen sully’s mri? no, she took nearly 45 minutes to carefully show us the mri stating, “this is sully’s spinal cord, this is his skull, here is his heart…”. we were also able to see in the image the possible tricep issue.
she then took the time to field our questions and gave us the validation needed to confirm that amputation was in fact in sullivan’s best interest. sullivan’s surgery was scheduled for wednesday, october 3rd.
our appointment with dr. casale was at 6:30pm. we didn’t walk out of angell until 9:15. her care was unprecedented.
