An interesting turn of events

So Dave and I called our oncologist friend Dr. Greg yesterday, and he threw up some red flags. Actually, it'd be more accurate to say that I could hear Greg's mouth hanging open on the other end of the phone. Why chemo first? Why mastectomy? Why three choices for chemo with no recommendation? He had me convinced that the second opinion would not be a mere formality in my case. He gave me the name and number of a breast cancer specialist he knows at George Washington University.

I called Dr. Seigel and left a message for the woman who handles his schedule. Then I called back and asked to speak to Dr. Seigel directly. I didn't think in a million years he'd come to the phone. I figured his nurse would come on and say he was with a patient, and then I'd say I just wanted to call to introduce myself, and I already left a message with the scheduler. I was doing an end run, and I was pretty sure I would get my hand slapped for it, but this is how things are done with a big insurer like Kaiser, so I'm used to it.

To my surprise, I got Dr. Seigel.

I told him that Greg Reaman suggested I call and that I wanted to introduce myself. He asked me a few facts about my case. I don't know if his mouth was hanging open, but he definitely wanted to see me. In fact, he wanted me to bring all my films and meet with one of his colleagues, who is a breast surgeon. In fact, maybe we could work it out so we could all sit down together. He told me he would walk right down and communicate all this to his scheduler, and lo!, this actually happened.

I was impressed. And excited. I have options again.

I realized later on that, when I went to see the Kaiser oncologist on Monday, all I wanted her to do was say "Here's what we're going to do. Let's start this afternoon." But she didn't do that. She wanted me to do the heavy lifting. And what happens when you do heavy lifting? You get muscles. Won't she be thrilled?

I'm seeing Drs. Teal and Seigel on Monday afternoon. Who knows? Maybe once they see the films and examine me they'll say the Kaiser docs were right. And that's fine, because I was resigned to that anyway. But what if they have a better plan? That idea is so exciting, I'm practically holding my breath.