Postby Foggyocean » Tue Dec 11, 2018 8:42 am
Hi mpbser,
I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's recurrence and the way in which you found out is awful. I don't post much here, but wanted to chime in as your husband's journey reflects my husband's journey. He, too, was treated at MGH for Stage IV w/liver mets. He had a liver resection and mop-up chemo (he had 4 mets to his liver) at MGH and had a new met pop up in his liver 6 months or so after he was done with chemo. I always told him that if it ever came back to the liver, I wanted to go to MSK and Dr. K. Although we were overwhelmed with the thought of starting up with everything again and I wasn't sure how the logistics would work with traveling down to NYC, I knew that we didn't want to look back on everything and ever wonder "what if".
We loved our MGH surgeon too (the oncologist was "fine", no one I felt any loyalty towards), but you know what? We love our MSK surgeon too. And we love Dr. K. And the front desk people. And the lab people. It is truly a remarkable place. And for all the battling you have done for your husband (rightfully so), at MSK you KNOW they won't let anything slip through the cracks. You can hand the reins over and trust them to do their job and you can just focus on supporting your husband. Another bonus that makes life so much easier -- you get your scans and your results in the same day! We have scans in the morning and see Dr. K in the afternoon. They really work hard for out of town people to get everything done in 1 day.
Of course this is a decision for you and your husband to make. And it will be more of a hassle to travel further away, but I can tell you that we have no regrets. And that extra travel possibly could have saved my husband's life.
-foggyocean
I should add that we still follow-up with his MGH docs...we forward the scans to them and meet with them every 2-3 months after we see Kemeny. He had SBRT for his liver met at MGH...logistically it was much easier. But I believe Kemeny insists that any surgeries be done by MSK docs.
45 year old caregiver to Husband
DX 3/16: 3cm Adenocarcinoma of sigmoid colon, Grade 2
4/16: colon resection; Stage IIIc (at diagnosis), 6/42 nodes, CEA: 11, MSS, KRAS
5/16: Baseline CT & MRI show 4 liver mets, CEA: 99
5/16-1/17: 4x FOLFOX, liver resect, 8x FOLFOX
8/17: 1 liver met, CEA 46.5
10/17: HAI pump; FUDR + Folfiri Oct-Mar '18 w/Dr. K @MSK
1/18: SBRT to liver met; CURRENTLY NED CEA < 1