Yesterday, Monday Oct 8, I participated for the first time in the #bcsm tweet up. #bcsm stands for breast cancer social media, and I learned a few days ago that every Monday evening at 8 pm central a group of people get together for a conversation…
You read a lot about personalized cancer therapy both in scientific journals and in the general press. The idea is that in the (near) future doctors will be able to learn a lot more information about your tumor, and pick just the right therapy to …
Yesterday went pretty well. Ironically, the biggest challenge for me was the relatively late start to the day, which was dictated by the OR slot assigned for the port placement. These are relatively simple operations, and quick, and of course elec…
As a very smart man once said “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. Today, I take that one step, with my first chemo, and start on my personal journey. It is remarkable to me, how far I have already been brought in the past two w…
Yesterday and today is getting ready time. After a quiet weekend getting some rest and doing some everyday things, now its time to get prepared. Yesterday I got an echocardiogram as a baseline of heart function, so that we can monitor any potentia…
The other key component of the care delivered at MD Anderson is that it is research driven. To me that means two things. First, it means that our physicians are all academic, and strongly connected with the latest research. The vast majority are t…
MD Anderson doctors practice multi-disciplinary research-driven patient care, and have done since our founding back in the early 1940s. There is a great history of MD Anderson that is well worth reading, written by Dr. James Olson, a historian and…
I started Monday at 7 am reporting to interventional radiology for a lung biopsy. In the CT last week the only thing that concerned my surgeon was a small nodule in the lower right lobe of the lung. I was again impressed by the efficiency and frie…
The next day it was bone scan and CT, to look for metastases. Routine stuff, and the dominant impression was the friendliness and professional attitude of the clinical staff that shepherd you through these processes. In between bone scan in the mo…
A few days later I was in the Nellie B. Connally breast center at MD Anderson. (http://www.mdanderson.org/patient-and-cancer-information/care-centers-and-clinics/care-centers/breast/index.html ), for mammogram and ultrasound. The dominant feeling …
Entering a World of Pink 