On Thursday I had an appointment withDr. Hopkinsto discuss the two medical second opinions I had obtainedfrom Dr. Xandfrom Dr. Lamm. After a moderate wait the doctor came in, and I was pleased to see that he had the second opinion writeups that I had faxed to the office a month ago in my file, and that he had read them.There were two areas of apparent disconnect between him and the second opinions. We plunged into a discussion of the first topic, the difference between maintenance protocols that Dr. Hopkins favored versus Dr. Lamm's recommendations (seconded by Dr. X). The primary difference is that Dr. Hopkins favors full-dose BCG treatments for a reducing frequency for three years. Dr. Lamm favors a reduced dosage of BCG (one third in my case) at an increased frequency for 12 years. So we can see the difference is big. We agreed that Dr. Lamm is indeed the guru, and that in the case of the treatment recommended he is somewhat going with his gut feel from experience. Dr. Hopkins explained that all docs do this to some extent...
Reconciling Second Opinions
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