prs wrote:At Kaiser they wouldn't even give me an appointment until six weeks after radiation ended. I was told any earlier my rectum would be too swollen and inflamed from the radiation for them to make a good determination of the results. It was the longest six weeks of my life!! That appointment was a physical rectal exam with a scope and they took photos of the scar tissue remaining at the site of the tumor. It was here that I was told I'd had a complete clinical response. They did schedule an MRI to confirm that determination but it didn't happen until the 9th week. I started chemo at 10 weeks.
Mike, is your surgeon a board certified colorectal surgeon?
Dr. Melnitchouk received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her general surgery residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. As a resident, she received the Rudolph Vollman Award for excellence in teaching and contributed to multiple HMS research projects on colon and rectal surgery procedures. She completed a colorectal surgery fellowship at the combined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and New York Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center Colorectal Surgery Program. She is board certified in general surgery and Colon and Rectal Surgery.
Her research interests are in outcomes research and global health; colorectal cancer screening and surgery for colorectal cancer in low-to-middle income countries; gastrointestinal complications involving cardiac surgery patients with LVAD and heart transplant; and sphincter sparing surgery for rectal cancer. Her clinical interests include minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic, robotic and combined endoscopic laparoscopic surgery), sphincter preserving/saving surgery in rectal cancer, colon and rectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disorders.
https://physiciandirectory.brighamandwo ... ails/12609
Brighams and Womens generally does the surgery for cancer patients at Dana Farber (Oncology and Radiation are done at Dana Farber, scans are done at B&W). My local oncologist told me that the quality of surgeons at Brighams and Womens is very high and I found that DFCI/BW is rated fourth in the country for cancer care. He also told me that Mass General could have slightly better surgeons for this area but I had already decided to go with DFCI. In retrospect, I think that I would have gone with MGH if I had known how hard the induction process was at DFCI. It seems to be a lot easier to get set up with MGH as DFCI is the big name draw in Boston for cancer. I had some questions on insurance coverage at Mass General as well which turned out to be a non-issue. DFCI just does an incredible amount of volume for cancer alone.