I believe that finding a good oncologist is very personal.\u00a0 It\u2019s like picking your favorite kind of dog in that one person may love a certain breed while another person does not.\u00a0 Believe it or not, the personal relationship with an oncologist is a major player in how much I like them.\u00a0 You might think that their treatment expertise or overall experience would be the driving factor, but for me it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, their expertise is very important, but for my situation, the treatment path is fairly well-trodden.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t much mystery nor have I found many varying opinions from my various oncologists about how to treat TNBC.\u00a0 There are some differences, and I have found over time that I trust one oncologist more than the others.\u00a0 Luckily for me, that\u2019s also the oncologist that I most related to personally.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he isn\u2019t local, and I\u2019d have to travel to stay with him.\u00a0 There are many variables at play when deciding on a hospital\/oncologist.<\/p>\n
Ratings:\u00a0 When I was first diagnosed, Mark spent hours upon hours on his laptop looking up the best-rated cancer hospitals in the country.\u00a0 His knee-jerk reaction was to attempt to move the family to Rochester, MN so I could be seen at Mayo Clinic (we had heard that was the best).\u00a0 He even set up an appointment there, but it was untenable in the end.\u00a0 Also, he found that near our location a mere one hour down the road was Indiana University\u2019s Simon Cancer Clinic which was ranked in the top 25 nationally by the US News and World Report.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t seem like top 25 was good enough at the time (he wanted only the best of the best), but we\u2019ve come to find that all cancer clinic facilities are basically the same or at least very, very similar.\u00a0 They have all been very nice, by the way.\u00a0 It\u2019s the individual oncologist that makes the difference. \u00a0One exception to this philosophy (that all are basically the same) is access to treatment. \u00a0If you need a specialized drug or a specific trial, you may need to visit a more “elite” clinic. \u00a0I was approved for a PARP inhibitor “off label” and that never would have gotten approved without Dr. S’s specialized team working from IU. \u00a0The Dayton Hospital simply didn’t have the muscle to pull that off.<\/p>\n
I have been seen by four different oncologists over the past 16 months and treated by three of them, but it was our original oncologist that I most loved.\u00a0 He was recommended to us by a friend of the family who studied under him and who still works in his research lab.\u00a0 Having a personal recommendation attached to the name as well as the technical expertise to back up that recommendation is likely the only way we would have found this Dr.\u00a0 A good recommendation can go a long way.\u00a0 Conversely, a bad recommendation could also make things harder, I suppose.\u00a0 Fortunately, the recommendation given to us turned out to be excellent.\u00a0 His name is Dr. Bryan P. Schneider, and he works at IU\u2019s Simon Cancer Clinic in Indianapolis, IN. Some of the things I like about Dr. S are that he takes time to communicate with me.\u00a0 When I ask about the details and the science behind what is happening, he takes the time to explain it thoroughly and patiently.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t seem annoyed at me for asking. Some do. He is very well respected in the breast cancer community. You can google his name and see what I mean. One of the greatest things he did was give us his cell phone number! And he doesn\u2019t mind when we call it.\u00a0 He\u2019s the only oncologist who has done this, and we don\u2019t take that lightly.\u00a0 We respect his gesture by not calling unless it is important.\u00a0 Even then, Mark generally only uses text. He also empathizes with us.\u00a0 It goes such a long way. He sits down and looks at me (no discomfort and he doesn\u2019t look away), and he is so sincere. And, finally, when we ask for his opinion, he gives it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I believe that finding a good oncologist is very personal.\u00a0 It\u2019s like picking your favorite kind of dog in that one person may love a certain breed while another person does not.\u00a0 Believe it or not, the personal relationship with an oncologist is a major player in how much I like them.\u00a0 You might think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":10,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-211","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P75Yu9-3p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":711,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/211\/revisions\/711"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}