Well it appears that The City of Hope is the one. The place is "first boat". Yesterday 12-3-08 I arrived at 1:00 for my 2:00 appointment because you need and hour to fill out all of the paperwork before the real appointment.
I was greeted at the new patients desk with a user friendly "Hello Mr. Delaney we were waiting for you". The guy who greeted me has been a volunteer for the COH for 25 years. I was identified and escorted to another office to start with the paperwork. After a zillion questions designed to keep us out of court, I was tagged and escorted to the radiation oncologist department. I was still filling out paperwork from the last stop. I was examined by a nurse with more paperwork and Q&A. She took my BP and weight as well. Whew I need to lose weight I was 214.2 pounds. Once she was done I got a visit from the Physicians Assistant and she performed another generic exam. Heart and lungs etc. Then I was interviewed again. This was somewhat redundant but required I guess. But anyway I was left alone with more paperwork to complete. This form/s focused on (without getting beyond PG 13) lets just say functionality of equipment below my belt. (hey we are all adults here)
I completed the forms and soon the door opened and the P.A. returned with the doctor. The Doctor introduced himself. I immediately felt a warmth. We talked about my situation and he quickly reassured me of how small and curable my cancer was. We discussed treatment options as mentioned in an earlier post. We spent 1.5 hours focusing on the pros and cons and side effects. I am convinced that The Tomo Therapy is for me. It is enhanced IMRT that produces a more sculpted and curative dose to the cancer with lesser side effects, reduced damage to surrounding normal tissue and fewer complications for me. Plus it is done in one machine; the standard IMRT uses 2 machines.
I called them today and said lets move forward. So now I wait for a call to set an appointment for my Treatment Planning. Treatment Planning involves an MRI (ouch! another I.V. injection) and a 3-D CT image scan to establish the percise contours for each regions of interest (tumor site) and regions of risk. (sensitive organs) It will take one week for the staff to evaluate the computerized mapping data and then my appointment for the first treatment is set for one week later.
COH is clearly a brand for cancer treatments. Plus they were the first on the West coast to offer this technology and they have performed 20k+ Tomo Therapy procedures. Now that is a confidence booster for me!! Next....... treatment planning!!
