And Behind This Door is Doctor #4

Doctors 2,3 and 4.

Like any good cancer victim facing the specter of cutting and chopping, and the pain and agony that is associated with surgery, I am seeking a second opinion..  I called my PCP immediately after the diagnosis and discussed my options.  Our talk ranged from the Mayo Clinic to Sloan-Kettering to the Cleveland Clinic and then to U of M.  He rattled off a few more that had specialties in different kinds of cancer.

After mulling it over I decided to go with U of M.  Hey, currently the diagnosis is that the cancer is small and slow growing.  U of M has enough credibility in medicine and in oncology that balancing distance and cost it won out.

Next came finding a doctor.  I immediately put feelers out to a group that we shall call “ladies in the know”.  In our community there is a grapevine of people, not necessarily all women, who are tied in to the neural net of the community.  They know who had what, who did what, where they did it and why.  The answer didn’t take long.  A name had cropped up a couple of times as the go to person for urological oncology.

I called my doctor.  He called U of M.  We waited.

Two days ago I got a call from a 734 number.  Ann Arbor is a city in the 734 code.  A calm voice began to speak.  “Is this Rufus.  Rufus I am Carl, I am the new patient specialist with the U of M urological oncology department.  We have received a referral from your doctor to see Doctor 2.  Is there a special reason you want to see Doctor 2?”

Quickly I responded.  I told Carl that I had renal cancer and that two separate people in my social circle had been treated by him with great results and glowing reviews.  Carl asked me, “Have you been told anything about your cancer?” I responded with what I have shared with you, I have Stage 1 cancer that is slow growing.  Carl was very precise, “Rufus you are simply not sick enough to see Doctor 2.  He specializes in advanced cancers that are aggressive and spreading.”  I tried to plead with Carl but he was the great curtain hanging before the Wizard.

Carl tried to throw me a bone.  “Rufus Doctor 3 has an opening next week.”  Carl implied Doctor 3 was the pro from Dover for tumors simply within the kidney.  But Carl’s position on whether Doctor 3 was appropriate for me would change.  Carl asked me how big my tumor was.  I volunteered it was about a centimeter by ½ centimeters per what Doctor 1 had told me.  Carl then offered, “Doctor 3 has recently changed his guidelines.  He will only see patients with tumors in excess of 4 centimeters.   Let me see.”  Carl then offered me an appointment on 08-02-19 with Doctor 4.

I asked Carl for the guy’s bona fides. Carl indicated that Doctor 4 had been at Sloan Kettering for 15 years and came to U of M 3 years ago to become part of the growing and specialized urological oncology department.  I assented.

Carl then in his ever pleasant voice began to explain the process.  There would be forms to fill out.  He would email them to me.  I would have to sign two of them and sent them back.  These would allow Doctor 4 to see all my slides and scans and reports before I arrived for my appointment. Next I would have to fill out a very specific release so that the Doctor and his staff could talk to the people of my choosing.  Finally there would be a 10 page form detailed every medical malady I had ever been burdened by, and all medications legit and otherwise I was using.  He told me he would be e-mailing these immediately.

Carl was true to his word.  He sent me 10 documents. Some were maps and directions.  One was the itinerary of my visit.  The rest were the forms.  I called Carl back and as God is my witness he answered the number he had given me and resolved my question about a couple of boxes and whether they had to be checked or not.

I have finished the forms.  I have the ones I have to hand deliver in my purse.  I have sent off my e-mail to my boss requesting time off next Friday for this visit.  My stomach is churning.  I know I have cancer, I just don’t want it to be any worse than I have already been led to believe it is.  Tomorrow I will Google Doctor 4 and check all the licensing databases and the Washtenaw Circuit Court filings on the dude.  I will do my homework.

On Saturday, the next night after the second opinion, I am headed off to Detroit to see Bryan Ferry perform all of the Roxy Music disc Avalon.  I will be catching up with an old friend at the Fox Theatre in Detroit both for food and the show. And then two days latter I will be celebrating my wife hitting retirement age.  Yeah, a whole lot is going on.  My hope is that Bryan Ferry can distract both my wife and I for a few moments.