Begining the next step of the Journey.

The border markers inside the Windsor Detroit Tunnel

As you know I have been struggling with the next move of my journey. I have carefully weighed the options in front of me, and have decided to move forward with the decision of getting a second opinion. I have contacted the people at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Mi. USA.

I have spoke with Verta at International Services at Karmanos, a very pleasant lady and she is helping me in getting my medical records transferred from Windsor to Detroit. She has sent me the release forms necessary to start the process. I have filled them out, faxed them, and confirmed with Verta that she has indeed received them.

The next step in the process is that she is forwarding them to the necessary department, which will have the records transferred to a physician/oncologist for review.Then I will get an appointment to see the Dr. there at which point he/she would examine me and then provide a report on his/her findings.

Now comes the question some will ask and that is , is this covered by OHIP (Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan) the government funded medical coverage here in Canada/Ontario. The answer to that is No. No they do not cover appointments for a second opinion, so all costs associated with this will be out of pocket. Just one more expense that we really can't afford, but this is a matter of life or death and the cost and having to pay it is not up for debate.

The cost for the second opinion includes a review of my medical records from 2006 to present, an exam, and the report of the physician doing it. From there it is my decision based on the Dr's report from Karmanos,  and my oncologist here in Windsor, what I do next. It is my hope that between the two opinions I can make a firm single decision on how to proceed. Watch and wait is a pretty much a dead option according to Dr's I've heard interviewed at the 2010 ASH conference in Orlando back in December.

Breakthroughs in Lymphoma from Patient Power® on Vimeo.

 Above is a video from the conference with Dr. Anas Younes ,an oncologist, lymphoma expert, and a Professor of Medicine at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. describing the breakthroughs for Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, and also about the pending death of the watch and wait school of thinking. Great news for us with recurrent/chronic disease!

Dr. Younes speaks of both of the newest treatment options,which I mentioned in my last blog post, Bendamustine + Rituxan and also SGN-35. I am very interested in the SGN-35 option, and am hopeful of getting in on the clinical trial of this at Karmanos. Very exciting indeed, however I'm still not 100% decided as yet and not hinging all bets on one option or another. This is just the way I am leaning at this moment in time. That could change an hour from now!

I have some amazing friends out there that have offered many words of hope and have enlightened me on information on all the options I am looking at. To all my U.S. friends, you guys rock! thank you for all the info you have helped me with so far. Like I just said though, I have not made a 100% commitment to any one choice just yet, other than I will be proceeding with the second opinion.

This is the latest for now, so I leave you all with love and hugs no matter where you are in your journey.

Tim. xxx