A full day at Big Barnes

• Second opinion appointments with surgeons Dr. Cha and Dr. MM

On Tuesday evening of this week, I met with my friend Teri to talk through some things that were on my mind since my appointments with Drs. R and G last week. She reinforced my concerns that if *I* don't feel 100% confident, then it was within my full rights as a patient to seek another surgical opinion elsewhere. It's not that I wasn't confident in Dr. G. because I have a lot of love and respect for her. I think it was her kindness during my June hospital stay that kept me from going to the dark side. She performed my colonoscopy and implanted my super port, and I never had any concerns or complaints about either. But talk of an upcoming colon surgery and possibly liver surgery had upped the ante. I need the very best available colon surgeon and the very best available liver surgeon to hopefully get the very best possible outcome. The certified Comprehensive Cancer Center in St. Louis is Siteman, the location where Teri had her surgery and treatment. She provided me with a few numbers to call on Wednesday about getting surgical consults there. Little did I know, that I would be able to get in the very next day.

First up is my appointment with Dr. Cha (not his full name). My friend Brenda, who works in the Advanced Medicine building where my appointments are today, comes with me to this appointment. First I meet with his NP to go over my history and after she meets with him, Dr. Cha comes in. He gives off a confident vibe but seems slightly annoyed that I might be there only to get a second opinion (as I did back in June before my first surgery). He seems to mention it a few times "iiiifff you decide to transfer your care here". I provide them with a copy of my latest pet scan, that I went and got yesterday from the hospital on a cd, and my medical records have been faxed over, but Dr. Cha thinks that it would be more useful to have copies of all my scans on cds. The appointment is pretty brief, he's not sure that there would be anything for him to do with the liver at this time, based on the latest pet scan, but he's willing to be surgically available if needed.

So it's back in my car to run to the hospital to get copies of the rest of my scans. I call on my way and the cds are ready when I arrive. Then it's back in my car to go back to the Advanced Medicine building for my next appointment. I meet up with Brenda again, drop the new cds off in the surgical office, and soon Hector and Laura join us for a quick lunch before my appointment with Dr. MM.

This appointment starts much the same as the first. This time it is Dr. MM's surgical fellow who comes in to go over my history. She's read through the faxed information and seen my latest PET scan, and from Hector's computer, we share the colonoscopy report. She's smart and knowledgeable about my information and I feel comfortable talking through it all with her. She leaves and fills Dr. MM in on my story and they come in. Dr. MM questions a bit why my chemo was recently changed, since it was shown to be working. He feels that I am a surgical candidate but wonders if this is the right time. We touch on the fact that if I transfer my care, I'll likely need/want to transfer to an oncologist in their network as well. Dr. MM thinks that I should meet with this new oncologist before we put surgery on the schedule. That's the short version, it is a long and worthwhile appointment. In total, I've spent about 4 hours at the Advanced Medicine building today. Afterwards, I'm exhausted, but headed back to work for a few hours.