My boss is cancer free.

[jobycom]

His second bout with colon cancer. After the first, he was clean for about a year, then it came back with a vengence. Six months into treatment they basically told him they couldn't do anything more. So he went to MD Anderson, in Houston, and on the first visit the doctor noticed several things his other doctors missed, recommended several new treatments that weren't as harsh or invasive, and cleaned him up. Yesterday he found he was cancer free. His first group basically had told him he'd be dead by now.

It's stunning the difference between doctors.

[graywarrior]

1. Wow, that is amazing.

And I am not surprised at all. A friend of mine's mother just went through her second bout with breat cancer. First doc wanted to remove entire breast and give chemo. Second doc said, nope, just take lump and no chemo. She is fine now.

[jobycom]

2. They thought it had spread throughout his body.

He had a spot on his lungs, and a large spot on his colon, and they couldn't do anything about the colon spot because of his previous radiation treatment. At MD Anderson they discovered that the colon spot wasn't cancer, but was an infection because of a mistake the first doctors made the first time through--basically they reconstructed something wrong.

The first doctors were a mess, although they did save his life the first time. But he had had a colonoscopy a year before he was diagnosed, and at that time they completely missed the cancer, which was exceptionally large already, and had been there for five years or more, and had been giving him classic symptoms of cancer for years.

Second opinions can be lifesavers.

[InternalDialogue]

3. It's stunning what different doctors see and prescribe for treatment

My brother and a best friend from high school are both doctors. Family medical issues usually get passed through them as well as the primary doctors involved. I can't number the times that my brother or friend noticed something different or suggested an additional test the original doc never did. It makes me think second opinions shouldn't be just a recommendation but a requirement, regardless of the severity of a condition.

[jobycom]

4. Which brings us back to a need for affordable health care, doesn't it?

Like most people, I've lost a couple of close relatives and friends who could have been saved with a better diagnosis. I know life isn't fair and that's just the breaks and we can't expect perfection, and all of that, but it seems like we could set our standards higher than we do as a society.