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First Appointment at Mayo Clinic in Arizona
My husband called to schedule an appointment for a second opinion for his prostate cancer treatment. We sent in all his pathology and scan results. When MAYO called back my husband was given an appointment with a Urologist at Mayo. Can anyone help us with what we can expect for this first appointment? We had really hoped we would be scheduled with a Radiology Oncologist so we could discuss treatment options. It seems like we are having to start back at the beginning with having to see a urologist. We live in Oregon and will be traveling out of town, obviously, so we want to make certain booking flights, and a hotel room will be worth this first appointment. We would really like some feed back on this as we navigate what to do. Thank you!
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@dandl48 Can you share the doctors you worked with re: prostate cancer treatment? Investigating this currently as I'd like to get an opinion from Mayo AZ.
Thx
Sergio
@themurfs Hi, I live in Seattle and wish to explore Mayo AZ for prostate cancer treatment. Can you share which doctors you worked with at Mayo and your experience w them?
Thx
Sergio
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1 Reaction@gonzaler84 Hello! My husband had a RALP with Dr. Scott Cheney. We was wonderful and my husband’s surgery went really well. Our care there was impeccable. We really have no complaints at all. His surgery was two years ago this past June and he is still cancer free. He still has his check ups with Mayo via zoom and we are very pleased with his ongoing care! I hope this helps! God bless you as you navigate what can be such a scary time. Please reach out with any other questions. We are happy to help!
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1 Reaction@themurfs Ty so much for your reply! Truly appreciate the recomendation. Did you meet with Dr Cheney at your initial visit or was he identified post your initial visit. I am assuming you met Cheney and any other doctors in person vs tele-health session?
As I navigate Mayo, want to help ensure that I'm approaching the initial visit to meet with the doctors that I may end up working with vs. meeting with one of them and then being assigned a different doctor. Given the importance of the initial meeting I'd prefer to have the group of doctors who are likely to participate in the treatment id'd up front.
Hope this makes sense.
As I research further, I may come back with addl q's so I appreciate very much your willingness to help answer q's that come up.
Cheers
Sergio
@gonzaler84
This makes complete sense! My husband took a long time making a decision of which route he wanted to go. Either surgery or radiation. We live in Oregon so our first connection was with his urologist here. We met with a radiology oncologist, but we weren’t impressed at all. That was here in Oregon. We decided to look into other facilities and we were led to MAYO for lots of different reasons but one was insurance. That’s a whole other story. Anyway, our initial visit was via a teleconference with Dr. Cheney. He is a urologist and surgeon. My husband was disappointed at first because he was not looking at surgery very seriously. He was aiming to go the route of radiology. But because we live in Oregon, if I’m understanding this correctly, we had to initially see somebody that was licensed in Oregon. That’s why we were scheduled with Dr. Cheney for our initial consultation even though my husband was leaning towards radiation. We did travel to Arizona for a consultation with the radiologist there. I’m sorry I can’t remember his name. He was very good, but my husband was hoping for a different protocol than what we had received here in Oregon, and after this being our third consultation with a radiologist, he realized that all of them pretty much suggested the same protocol. His biggest reluctance with radiology was the hormone deprivation which he wanted to avoid, but all three different radiologist agreed that he should do the hormone deprivation. With that being said, he started looking at surgery as a more viable option. So we reached out to Dr. Cheney again to talk to him more about surgery, and finally this is the route my husband chose. So to make a long story short, the urologist/surgeon we had our initial consultation with because he was licensed in Oregon as well, ended up being the surgeon who performed the RALP. We don’t believe in coincidences. We truly believe God directed us, even though we didn’t see it at first. Dr. Cheney was amazing and we felt very confident in his ability. He made us feel very much at ease and we are grateful he was our first encounter at Mayo. I hope all this makes sense and please, reach out with any other questions you may have! I believe my husband would be willing to talk with you as well, if that is of interest. We were able to talk with others who had walked this road before us and I feel like it was very helpful in easing our minds about things. Blessings!
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1 Reaction@themurfs Ty for your detailed reply. I may very well follow up with you and your husband to chat further. V happy for your husband that rec'd great care w Cheney. Congrats!
I've checked my insurance and Mayo Phx is in-network so this is a huge relief. Next week I have scheduled the PET scan and go from here.
In all likelihood, I will very likely sched an appt w Mayo Phx because getting a second opinion is a no brainer. I will also meet w a team at Fred Hutch in Seattle. Who knows - maybe both teams will arrive at very similar conclusions re: treatment...we'll see...
Ty again for willing to chat further as I progress through this journey...
I feel very lucky to have found the Mayo Clinic Connect site. It is great...I realize there are a lot of great forums - I just happen to have come across this one and so far I'm super happy to be part of this community...
Cheers
Sergio
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2 ReactionsI think you are going about this very thoroughly which is awesome! May I ask, are you having a PMSA PET scan? That’s what I would recommend!
@themurfs Hi, ty for your feedback. The PET scan is scheduled for Sep 14 - so this coming Monday. Next meeting is with urologist on Sep 18 to review results and then start scheduling initial visits once the data is available for review.
Ty again...
Cheers
@gonzaler84 you should check that you are schedule for a PSMA PET scan. A regular PET scan is not as precise. You may have to advocate for the PSMA PET scan. It’s prostate specific!
Think of a second opinion as just that. It isn't a treatment plan it's a review of where you are. Mine looked like a GU reading my journey to me and stating my plan looks fine and gave me a 70-30 shot of never having to deal with this again. Also stated he only treats stage 4 and just didn't find me interesting. I busted out laughing along with the rest of the room while stating I think that is a good thing that you don't find me interesting. Said come see me if you psa rises to 2 and we can find it and treat it.
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