Donna in Hollywoodland

Oncologist #2

If you think of Oncologist #1 as Dr. Grumpy - well, Oncologist #2 would be Dr. Happy.
At least his offices were much nicer, and better organized.

They had me sit in an examining room. Dr. Happy came in and greeted me. He said it would just be a few more minutes while he looked over my files.
Ummm, he had had them for at least a week, and he was just looking at them this second ? Ok, whatever, I'll just sit there in the exam room.

I heard a nurse yell down the hallway."Dr. Happy, So and So is on the phone. They had a terrible reaction to the treatment they had yesterday. They have a 104 temperature. What should they do?"
Dr. Happy replied "Tell them to go into emergency. I am not in the Sherman Oaks office today."
The nurse sounded confused.
Dr Happy restated "I am not in Sherman Oaks today, they will have to go into Emergency."
Ummm.... we're in Burbank.. its not that far from Sherman Oaks. I thought, Couldn't his patient just come here to the Burbank office ?
Whatever.

Dr. Happy came in, and chatted with me. He went over all the usual Chemotherapy stuff.
He was alittle more positive - Where Dr. Grumpy estimated my chances of getting Cancer around 30%, with only a 7% reduction from Chemotherapy. Dr. Happy estimated my chances of getting cancer again at 20%, with a 10% reduction with chemo.
But then again, he's just a positive kind of guy.

He even used the word "Presume" instead of "Assume", when talking about cancer cells.
I said "So since the cancer was in one lymph node, you are going to assume I have cancer cells in my body."
He replied "Yes, we will presume that there are cancer cells, even tho we can't see them."
Maybe he had already heard the little saying I am so fond of "When you Assume, you make an Ass out of U and Me."
So Dr. Happy ... Presumes.

I wrote down the names of the Chemo drug on a piece of paper. And I told him I wanted to look them up on the Internet.

I asked "If I don't want Chemo - what is Plan B ?"
There is no Plan B - Chemo is the only option.
Dr. Happy said "If this were my sister, I would want her to have Chemotherapy."
Ah, how nice.

So I brought up the Boarderline Enlarged Heart that showed on my CT Scan. And the fact that I only have one kidney, and I absolutely do not want that kidney damaged in anyway.

Dr. Happy felt that the one drug he was going to give me that had Heart failure listed as a Possible Risk - well, this drug only did that with over 8 dosages. And he would only give me 4 dosages. So he felt that risk was eliminated.

As for my one kidney - he does get credit for thinking it out - He would divide the drugs up.
I would get 2 drugs for 3 months, followed by 1 drug for 3 months. He felt by dividing them up, it would be less stressful to my One Kidney.
Well, that sounded alot better to me - until it hit me that would mean a full 6 months of chemo. Thats a Half of a Year.
(The first oncologist suggested 4 months with all 3 drugs together.)

He almost suckered me in. The idea of dividing up the drugs gave me hope he might actually be a good chemo doctor.
He was thinking at least.
And he told me he had given chemo to patients with only one kidney in the past.
Wow, this is sounding alot more reassuring.
Until .....

I said "We've gone over the hair loss, and nausea that are side effects. And the possible Heart problems, and damage to my one kidney. What other Risks or Side Effects are there ?"

Dr. Happy looked me straight in the eye. "None, thats it."

I repeated, looking him straight in the eye "There are no other side effects ? Other than the hair loss, nausea, heart or kidney problems?"

"No other risks, thats it" said Dr. Happy again.

The man looked me straight in the face and lied to me.
A nice, happy lie.

He didn't mention my hands and feet turning yellow, my nails falling out of the nail bed, the lining of my bladder coming off in sheets. All these wonderful possible side effects that I can so easily find by looking up the name of the drug on
the Internet.

That was that, I was definitely done with Dr. Happy.
I told him he had been my second opinion, and that I was most likely getting a third opinion too.
He smiled, and told me to make a decision in a few weeks.

As I was at the front desk making my insurance co-payment, a man was checking in his wife for her chemotherapy treatment. He seemed worried and nervous.
He said to the nurse "You know, when you gave her the treatment last time, she had a terrible reaction."
Whatever the nurse said to him didn't help, he continued to look worried.

Okay - Count that as the 3rd "Bad Reaction" story I have heard just hanging around an Oncologists office.
The first one being with Oncologist #1 when he had to dash out of the room because the patient was having a bad reaction.
The second being the high fever the one of Dr. Happy's patient had before my appointment.
Last, now the worried Husband.

And so far ... no Doctor has mentioned the term "Bad Reaction" when discussing any side effects from chemo.

I have made my decision - there will be no chemotherapy for me.