Oncologist Meeting #1

Today we met with Dr. DiMartino – the oncology doctor in Lafayette where we will be going for Kathie’s chemo treatments. She had been suggested by family friends who are being treated with her for another type of cancer. She was extremely warm (but more Kathie’s kind of person than Bob’s – discussion veered to the emerald on her hand, a television show, etc;) ) She is also religious/spiritual, which is the kind of support system we want in place. Dr. “D” didn’t give time estimates or statistics – she doesn’t believe in them and thinks that telling your body negative things like that is basically just giving your body a command to follow it. Needless to say, we like her positive thinking.

Unfortunately/Fortunately, she of course gave us a different opinion than Dr. Robb (“I’m a chemo person” she told us). Her recommendation was to start chemo before surgery and see if we can’t shrink down the lesions (spots) on the liver since that’s the primary concern for the cancer growth. Of course, we received a phone call from Dr. Robb just minutes before our appointment with Dr. D – and after reviewing the films with his partner (Dr. Maluccio – the one who would be dealing with the liver), they had decided at most they would do surgery on the colon – the spots and their placements looked a bit tricky to attack that in this first surgery.

So, since Kathie does not have immediate blockage issues (we all think anyway), the chemo focus, which would also clearly be aimed at shrinking the colon tumor as well… may be the route to go. We won’t be deciding anything, however, until we speak to the doctors at M.D. Anderson.

As with Dr. Robb, Dr. DiMartino, seemed not extremely concerned about waiting 2-3 weeks to make any solid plans to start treatment. Our goal now is to arm ourselves with as much professional advice and information possible and then make a decision we (but mainly Kathie since it’s her body) are all comfortable with and then go from there.

To help in our decision making process, Dr. D set up a PET scan tomorrow – something we’ve been trying to get going for a few days now. Dr. D rushed it so we have something else to take to M.D. Anderson as a discussion point for the best way to treat Kathie’s surgery. Again, it was a relief to speak to another doctor with a heart and complete understanding that we are looking at all of our options, while realizing we very much valued her opinion.

We have booked flights and a hotel in Houston for next week.

Posted by Lauren