Lmao! Esophogastroduodenoscopy is such a long word, wow. Thank you so much for the suggestion, the abdominal and chest x-rays make absolute sense and would totally be done anyway, so it's nice those two cancers can be detected that way. I'll absolutely use that process to come to the diagnoses, it's simple and works exactly with what I'm attempting to do.
Ironically enough my other MC is an alcoholic so the esophageal varices sounds really interesting, I don't want to do too much since the stuff in my story is already A LOT, but I definitely want do more research on this just to have a better understanding. He definitely does have medical issues due to his addiction, but it's more of a background thing since he's been much more capable of managing things, and they're not anywhere near as serious.
My apologies for the misunderstanding with COPD and asthma, I did a bit a reading after seeing your response and got a few articles treating them like separate things, but I'm glad it's overall confusing and I'm not just being an idiot. Lol
From the sounds of it I can keep the asthma diagnosis from when they were younger, but they just haven't gotten better because they wound up getting chronic bronchitis? That IS complicated, but the confusion makes sense. Reminds me of psychology research papers I've read where symptoms of clinical depression and ADHD can overlap, causing a misdiagnosis. (Not that the asthma would be a misdiagnosis, it's just the overlapping symptoms making things confusing.)
Thank you for the portacath feedback, I'll stick with it, and the character going to an infusion center will work just as well! The length of time, hours and frequency help a lot too! The gum infections! That's what I was trying to think of! Yeeeah, unfortunately I know all to well about the lack of access to dental care. Used to be totally accessible to me since my mom worked for a dentist, but then he changed it to family need to pay, and I didn't have insurance or money so it was like... :'D Dental care is... a luxury for sure!
That's a good reminder though, even if the character had money their teeth could use work, and getting everything totally fixed up would take a lot of time and returning trips to the dentist. Generally if a root canal is involved the dentist may need time to get the cap ready, cavities can take days to fix depending on how many teeth need treatment, it's definitely not ideal if your on a time limit. I'll put all that into consideration, and maybe not even add that scene in. The most this character would need relating to possible infections would be a couple small cavities fixed and a crown.
Fff I've probably been a pain in the ass, but you've been such a great help! I know not every detail will show up, but it's nice to understand what I can to cover my bases, especially since medical is so technical. Also even if I'm not perfect, it's respectful to at least try. I feel invigorated with my comic again (Not that I was burnt out with it, life has just been making it hard to be motivated in general.), you've made my day! I can't do it for a couple more weeks, but do you have any way I can donate to you for your time? Like a Ko-Fi, or if you take Ink I can give you a few dollars worth, I feel bad not giving you compensation for the info.