Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftWriteFemme
All I can say is, What a Difference going to a dedicated breast center has made!! After having been to three doctors (all working as a team mind you) in three consecutive weeks, who A. seemed surprised to see my sponsee who has breast cancer and B. had to be told why she was there..........even though I was in the office with the first doctor when he made the phone calls to the other two......I was not happy.
This Monday when we went for a second opinion at the Livingston Breast Center:
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We saw Doctor Sarah Schaefer, who has been the doctor for my sponsor Nan and also for close friends of my sponsee's. Amazingly she knew exactly why we were there. None of the other doctors had managed to get the pathology report, Doctor Schaefer and the Center use something called Nurse Navigator and had those results with in 5 minutes and was able to lay out a plan with us during the first visit.
Also I had been looking at a study using Reparixin, the other three doctors, blew it off though they had never heard of it, Doctor Schaefer looked it up right there and we talked about the pros and cons and how she would cooperate with Montefiore if my sponsee chose to participate.
Tomorrow my sponsee is going to see Doctor Dean R Cerio, who is a plastic surgeon who works in cooperation with the center. The plan is that my sponsee will be getting the breast reduction she has always wanted as a part of the lumpectomy.....which is also amazing because the other three doctors had told her there was no way.
As part of a small personal victory, my sponsee is going to see this surgeon with her friend who is also a patient of this doctor and I am going to have my mamo and then see a pulminologist (I failed my spirograph test)
I realize that the bigger the team the easier this is going to be for all of us.
My grandmother used to say 'many hands make light work' and she was sure right. Having the support of the people on this thread and the folks we know in recovery, plus our friends and family has made this lonely thing feel like a group effort and quite survivable. Thank you so much!!! |
Glad things went so well for your sponsee (and glad to hear that you are taking care of yourself, too!)! Yes, I have heard it does make a big difference if you are at a breast center. Oncologists are more motivated because it is their life's work, instead of all cancers.
Glad to hear so many are pitching in to help. They say one should have a "cancer team" when facing this. I can't remember all the different roles, but Keith Block, M.D. wrote about it in his book ("Life Over Cancer"). I'm sure you can find the concept in other places. Roles include for example, the "researcher" who looks up information, goes to all the appointments, and organizes it all, then there would be a person who had time to do driving to chemo/radiation/testing, someone may be good at making meals, etc. It is too much for one or two people to manage. I know it was a lot for just my mom and girlfriend. However, I was able to do a lot of things for myself for the bulk of my treatment (during chemo), so it was only about two months I was useless (after surgeries). My brain was never really clear though during all that treatment. I think I even wrote some idiotic stuff on this website during that time!