Dear Fellow Travelers:
My wife and I stood in the parking lot of a very large medical center a few weeks ago talking with a doctor who had just been interviewed by a television crew. The parking lot had been converted into a place with a carnival-like atmosphere for the hospital’s annual Cancer Survivor’s Day. As we chatted in the warm October sunshine of a Carolina afternoon behind us was the backdrop of one of the hospital towers and a row of windows that marked the floor of a treatment unit that I had spent so many weeks in some years ago. My wife and I had looked out those windows many times in the general direction of the very spot in which we stood, wondering about the future, and hoping for the best.
The doctor served as one of the spokespeople at the event for the news media covering not only the survivor’s day, but the new cancer center that had recently opened at this growing hospital.
As one of the key department heads in the cancer center this doctor no longer attends to my care as he did for a number of years when he, a nurse, and a few staff people comprised the entire department that treated my cancer type as well as a few others. The three of us talked about how extensively the treatment options for this cancer have come since I first walked into his facility in October 2000. That year he saw some thirty-five or so patients diagnosed with this cancer; today there are often that many cases seen each week by the present medical team.
This doctor knows my case quite well, we have looked at countless scans over the years, recognizing the existing areas of metastatic disease and searching for other subtle changes on the images taken a few hours earlier of various parts of my body. He once told a patient that I accompanied to see him that I could read scans as well as he (a wildly flattering overstatement). In addition to being a great oncologist he is also an excellent surgeon; a few scars on my body can attest to his skill.
We spoke from the standpoint of a relationship forged for a common cause; an effort to obtain the best quality of life and long-term survivorship for me once the cancer I had been diagnosed with had developed metastases. As the years passed I became more involved in cancer advocacy partially out of a desire to see that others diagnosed with cancer received the same level of outstanding care and attention that I had been fortunate enough to receive due in no small part to his dedication and determination.
We spoke of the past, and of a photo taken by my wife a decade ago of the doctor and his daughter when she accompanied him one Saturday morning as he made his rounds. The photo is still in his office, having been moved from a series of offices as the hospital and he grew into new responsibilities. The young girl at his side is now a student in college. We spoke of the future; he shared his hope of medical facilities being able to offer the level of care that I had received in locations much closer to the patient’s home. He looked at me with those same eyes that I have seen many times and expressed his goal and desire for me to live to become a very old man. We spoke of the present, of how things have turned out, and how we have grown.
A few days later my current doctor presented my case to a tumor board as we considered options for the next step in my treatment; my case has been before similar boards at this facility many times. This doctor possesses that same level of exceptional care, interest, skill, and compassion that his predecessor does. That afternoon sitting in his office as we talked and made decisions he commented that my longtime friend was at the board meeting that day. The board concurred with the steps that my doctor. and I had already tentatively identified; a week earlier we had painstakingly looked at all of the many options that we now have that are available for me and settled on what we thought would best meet our short and long-term goals.
I realize that most people have not had the opportunity to develop such a close relationship to their doctor and medical team over the years as I have. However the ability to talk and to effectively communicate with them is so vitally important and every effort should be made to establish a great working relationship with our medical providers and caregivers. That is one of the important things that can help us to become a more Powerful Patient.
Warmest Wishes Mike
