Faith
My oncologist’s name. That must mean something. I finally found her, after having seen two others and having asked the opinion of one oncologists’ board. Her name is Iman, which signifies faith in Arabic. And I need a little faith…correction… a lot. She actually listened to me, validated not only my feelings about cancer and treatment options, but also my research and my informed opinion. I went to see her last week: she was part of the multidisciplinary breast cancer board that meets every week in Hollywood at Kaiser. Turns out that other institutions have nothing to do with it, unlike what I wrote in my last post. That doesn’t make much of a difference in any case. So last week I met with Dr. Faith and with three radiation oncologists. Surgeons were also on the board, but there was nothing to be asked of them, as I already had surgery :-). Anyway, Dr. Faith immediately proposed I take a look at the TailorX trial, without me even mentioning it. Then both of us waffled back and forth between chemo or TailorX. Should I just get chemo, though we don’t really know it’s going to help me, or should I participate in the trial, which would at least give me the advantage of knowing through OncotypeDX whether chemo is likely to give me a better prognosis, even though if my score falls between a certain range I will be randomized for treatment? Dr. Faith questioned and thought out loud with me the pros and cons of each option. At the end she suggested I look at participation to a trial as helping other women, since the results will be used to improve treatment for breast cancer patients in the future. Given what Francesca (and other doctors) suggested to begin with, I see this as a win-win situation: I get a tailored treatment for the type of cancer I had, am followed closely because part of a trial, and I can feel I am doing something good for others too. That is, if I get into this trial. After signing all paperwork and doing extra blood tests, the medical trials coordinator at Kaiser sent my tumor block to the lab and all my information to the consortium that does the trial. Now I am waiting for them to get back to her (and me) and let me know if they accept me into the trial and, if so, what my OncotypeDX results are (thus what my treatment will be). Needless to say, I canceled all appointments with other oncologists as well as the chemo appointment for today. So today I spent the day with Alessandro instead of being poked in my hand and injected a funny-colored substance! I have an appointment with Dr. Faith for next week, on January 11th, day in which I will either start chemo or hormonal therapy.
As for radiation oncologists, they ordered a second opinion pathology report (I had previously asked that to some other doctor – or was it a nurse? – and had been advised against it for no reason at all in my opinion) , but said that given a clean margin of less than 1mm. their practice (as well as national guidelines) recommended radiations. I thought that the report said that the clean margin was 1mm. wide, but I had read it incorrectly: “within 1mm.” means “less than 1mm.” not “equal to 1mm.” Anyway, looks like I can’t escape radiation, but I am still looking into it, as a new study has come out that seems to suggest that radiation after mastectomy does not improve survival chances. One of the radiation oncologists I talked to left a message on my answering machine today, wanting to talk to me. I’ll see what she has to say tomorrow. The second pathology report, by the way, basically confirmed what the first said. So I think she’s going to recommend radiation. I will make the decision once I talk to Dr. Faith. Only bad thing about my new doctors, whom I like, is that they are in East Hollywood, at least an hour away from home (given usually bad traffic conditions). But hey, this might just mean that 26.3 miles are required for this leap of Faith!
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What would it mean if your oncologist’s name was “Dick”?
That he would look like Cheney?