Bladder Cancer - My 2nd Second Opinion - September, 2008
Posted Nov 02 2008 6:03am
I was quite surprised to get a call fromDr. Donald L. Lammin the early afternoon on Labor Day, Monday, September 1. He told me that he was using the day to catch up on things, and he apologized for taking so long to get back to me. I asked him if he had read all the information I had sent to him, and he surprised me a little by responding in the affirmative.I had downgraded my expectations somewhat aftermy consult with Dr. X, although I had some hopes that Dr. Lamm would have some new inputs on BCG maintenance treatments scheduled to begin a week after my cystoscope on October 23 - IF all goes well. Certainly Dr. X thought highly of Dr. Lamm in the BCG arena. My wife and I were both home, and Dr. Lamm endorsed my plan of putting him on speaker phone so that we had hands free for note taking and that we both could listen.Dr. Lamm's resumeis quite impressive, he has written anumber of textbooks, and he has the advantage of years of experience over bothDr. HopkinsandDr. X.
We grabbed notepads and pens quickly and proceeded. My $300 fee included his review of my records and a "10 minute phone consultation," so I wanted to get as many questions answered as we could in the allotted time. I asked if he had any introductory remarks, and he told me he had written a brief report which he could forward to me via email. We exchanged email addresses for that purpose. He generally supported the original diagnosis, but was a bit more specific on the language - "You have high grade T1 bladder cancer with high grade Ta recurrent TCC on repeat resection, and you appropriately elected a trial of 6 BCG immunotherapy treatments." Dr. Lamm added that he had a detailed summary written, and suggested we proceed with questions...
We grabbed notepads and pens quickly and proceeded. My $300 fee included his review of my records and a "10 minute phone consultation," so I wanted to get as many questions answered as we could in the allotted time. I asked if he had any introductory remarks, and he told me he had written a brief report which he could forward to me via email. We exchanged email addresses for that purpose. He generally supported the original diagnosis, but was a bit more specific on the language - "You have high grade T1 bladder cancer with high grade Ta recurrent TCC on repeat resection, and you appropriately elected a trial of 6 BCG immunotherapy treatments." Dr. Lamm added that he had a detailed summary written, and suggested we proceed with questions...