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Saturday, October 6, 2012

We're happy, life is good

We're happy, life is good. Those were the words from doctor Berenson yesterday.  He is very pleased with how I'm doing. Maintenance is doing the trick. Dr B is funny. I like him a lot. When we first went to him, he was a bit intimidating, very curt and all business. Of course, I was in bad shape at the time and he was searching for something that works. Now though, he's friendly, jokes and is pretty nice. That doesn't mean he sits around and  chats like Dr Phan. But I get Dr B now. He completes me. I like him a lot.

Anyhow, Leslie brought him a few pictures from our wedding and he was super excited, he kept congratulating us, throwing out mazel tovs a couple of times and then he shouted it to others in his office. His reaction gave me a bit more insight into the doctor's mindset. When we first went to him, he said his goal with to have patients "live a complete life" and he wasn't interested in the oft mentioned quality of life. Quality of life was something that bothered me early on. What the fuck is quality of life. It just sounds so deterministic to me. Quality of life...to me sounds like the disease is gong to overtake you, but you'll be pain free and able to go on slow five minute walks once in a while. I hated that term and Dr B's complete life statement really resonated with me. He has a picture in his office of one of his patients on top of Mt Kilimanjaro. That is complete life. He told us he wants to post our wedding picture on his website. He understood that the wedding was not just a wedding, but was also a celebration of how far we've come. That's his goal.....to have patients live and be happy. We're doing that.

On a side note, we told him we had a skeletal survey done. As we sort of expected, he didn't see the point. I have no bone pain, and from the skeletal survey, we wouldn't change my treatment one bit. But when Leslie said it would give me a peace of mind, he understood. Still don't have the results. I'll probably get them Tuesday when I go to Phan's for chemo.  



2 comments:

  1. Lookin' good Matt! Keep on completing!...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Strong bones! I know you've got them. Hope the test comes out with more good news

    ReplyDelete

Berenson Oncology Success Rate

 Some reading about my myeloma specialist's success rate. A press release and an article from Targeted Oncology.