Sales Pitch

I met with Dr. Richard on 19 Jan 2010 to discuss chemotherapy. We went through the medical history drill, my symptoms that led me to being diagnosed and then a discussion about chemo treatments. In the end Dr Richard said this cancer wasn’t a good candidate for primary chemotherapy, but he’d talk to Dr. Eller, meet with the tumor board and see what everyone else was recommending. He then gave me a physical exam and talked about hockey.

My wife and I met with Dr. Akins on 20 Jan 2010 to discuss radiation therapy. Again the medical history drill, blah, blah, blah. Dr. Akins then went through what radiation therapy he would recommend. Then we started asking questions. What technology was available? He said they have IMRT. I asked him if they had TOMO radiation therapy, he said no. I asked him if TOMO wasn’t better than IMRT, he said they do good PR, and make a big deal of the technology, but it really isn’t any better than IMRT. I wasn’t impressed with his answer. He said IMRT is a good treatment for my diagnosed tumor and I should seriously consider it. We asked for a referral, he wasn’t impressed. I asked him if he had seen the CAT scan, and if it showed how deep the tumor went into my tongue. We went and reviewed the CAT scan. I was impressed; I’d never seen one before. It showed my tumor very well, but we couldn’t tell how deep it went into my tongue. We talked some more, he did an exam. Then he offered a different procedure. The procedure consists of placing radioactive implants in or near the tumor twice a day for 5 days. They can give higher doses for shorter periods at the primary tumor site. This appealed to me because it was a shorter treatment time, affected the salivary glands less, but the procedure wasn’t offered at my medical facility. Dr. Akins said he’d call a friend that works with the procedure on the east coast and see what he recommended.