More on Doctors...

Hospital doctors did not prove to be much better.  During one hospitalization, three different doctors could not even agree on what Tami had.  It was so frustrating to hear one say one thing and another come in and say the complete opposite.  We actually sent them back downstairs to talk to radiology and not come back until they all agreed on the same thing.  Each scenario had a different outcome and treatment, and again were at entirely different ends of the spectrum.

We met Oncologist number 4 when the 3^rd one went out on medical leave.  He was covering in Irvine, part time as he practiced out of Riverside.  Our first meeting with him was on a Saturday after Tami was discharged from the hospital with bowel colitis.  We loved everything he had to see and especially his personal, out-of-the-box approach to treatment.  By this time, we knew Tami was not typical.  She did not respond typically to chemo.  She did not have a typical kind of cancer.  Yet, everyone wanted to treat her as typical.  Someone needed to start thinking outside the box.  The things he offered made sense and his explanation of things made sense.  However, when the first lesion showed up on her liver, he down played it and said that he could not be sure it was cancer.  The following month another scan was done, and now there were 7, too many to treat, and then two months later, there were too many to count.  Again, she was told, nothing more could be done for her, except to continue systemic chemo treatments.  So far, every one put her in the hospital with side effects. 

At this point, Tami decided to go to Oasis of Hope.  It is a Christian based integrative cancer treatment center.  The original hospital is in Mexico, but they have an outpatient center in Irvine.  At our first appointment with the Integrative doctor, he listened intently to her for almost 2 hours.  Then, he asked to pray with and for her.  We were all amazed and shocked!!!  She had found a place where she would be loved, cared for, prayed for, and treated as a whole person, not just a cancer patient.  We met with the Oncologist from there to go over possible treatment options, and he suggested focus beam radiation for the biggest tumor by the rectum, and then possible ablation to the liver afterwards.  Tami then contacted Kaiser to meet with a different Oncologist, yes this is number 5, to discuss the recommendations made.  He agreed to refer to radiation oncology.  We met with the Radiation Oncologist to discuss course of treatment.  He suggested focused beam radiation, but to a wider area of the abdomen to try to reach more of the cancer.  So, we scheduled 10 days of radiation.  Back and forth every day from Ontario.  The good news was that the radiation alleviated her pain, but the bad news was that the radiation tapped her physically.  She was already having appetite and eating issues, and they just got worse.  It was not long after radiation that she passed away.