When I was told that my cancer was incurable, I wanted to get a second opinion to be sure!\u00a0 It would be a terrible thing to die from a disease that might have been cured.\u00a0 Also, I wanted to know what was available outside of IU\u2019s clinic.\u00a0 I had many questions.<\/p>\n
Could we be missing something new and better than what is available locally?\u00a0 Was there a clinical trial showing more promise elsewhere? \u00a0Is traditional chemo\/radiation even the best way to treat cancer?\u00a0 What about alternative treatments and\/or methods?\u00a0 Is Immunotherapy good for breast cancer patients?\u00a0 What is my current oncologist missing?<\/p>\n
The list of questions goes on and on, and it felt like the only way to obtain peace of mind was to travel to a premiere clinic to officially receive a second opinion.\u00a0 We looked at Mayo Clinic in MN, MD Anderson in Houston, and Dana Farber in Boston.\u00a0 We ultimately decided on Dana Farber for their breast cancer expertise.<\/p>\n
We called the Dana Farber Clinic and scheduled an appointment with a breast oncologist, Dr. Ken Burstein.\u00a0 The appointment was set for a few weeks later, and we flew to Boston the day prior.\u00a0 Basically, we received the exact same diagnosis\/prognosis from Dana Farber, so that was enough to settle our minds and stop the wondering.<\/p>\n
While my second opinion served only to bring me peace of mind, I know people who have benefitted greatly from obtaining a second opinion.\u00a0 Specifically, one woman was told they could not operate on all of her lymph node tumors due to the close proximity of a blood vessel.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t accept that opinion and flew to Houston to MD Anderson for a second opinion.\u00a0 They looked at her tumors and felt good about proceeding with surgery.\u00a0 They successfully removed all of her cancerous tumors and she currently enjoys clear scans!\u00a0 That second opinion was literally the difference between life and death. I recommend second opinions because of this story and many others I have heard.<\/p>\n
No matter the type of cancer diagnosis, I would recommend everyone receive a second opinion regarding treatment options.\u00a0 The timing, however, is very important.\u00a0 If the timing was wrong, I would have wasted time and money.\u00a0 I needed to get all of the most current Biopsy reports, body scans, and brain scans updated.\u00a0 I had also begun my first round of chemo, and I needed to wait to see my tumor\u2019s reaction to that first line of therapy.\u00a0 These are things that a second opinion doctor needed to see.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t simply look at my original blood work or discharge papers from the ER and tell me what should be done.\u00a0 I waited until my first round of chemo was finished without positive response when we were deciding on the next potential treatment options.\u00a0 I was at a natural stopping\/decision point and wanted to be sure we were headed in the right direction.\u00a0 For me, it was important to wait for that natural stopping point.\u00a0 If I had gone for the second opinion in the middle of my first round of chemo, the second opinion Dr would have just told me to wait and see.\u00a0 Since we were at a natural decision point, he was able to give us his proposed treatment plan for the future.\u00a0 I made him lay out a full long-term plan.\u00a0 I then compared his long-term plan to that of Dr. Schneider\u2019s and we saw how similar they were.\u00a0 At that point, it was easy to stay with Dr. Schneider.\u00a0 Waiting for the right timing was important for me.\u00a0 For others, second opinions are needed immediately.\u00a0 Every cancer story is unique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was told that my cancer was incurable, I wanted to get a second opinion to be sure!\u00a0 It would be a terrible thing to die from a disease that might have been cured.\u00a0 Also, I wanted to know what was available outside of IU\u2019s clinic.\u00a0 I had many questions. Could we be missing […]<\/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-215","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P75Yu9-3t","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215","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=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"http:\/\/www.louisecincala.com\/lori\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions\/216"}],"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=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}