[Colleens_Husband]

Dear Friends:

I'm not sure anyone would ever know if their oncologist has the technical skills to be a top-rated oncologist. Being nice and personable is one set of skills and being a able to successfully fight cancer is another set of skills that may not have anything to do with personality.

Colleen's oncologist is a short Pakistani physician who operates in secret medicine mode. He doesn't tell us anything unless we ask. I think he is trying to Pearl Harbor the tumor by sneaking up on it. He was making us nuts.

Then we read a newspaper article in the local fishwrap and we find out he was voted one of the four best oncologist on the west coast by other oncologists and his specialty is Her2 breast cancers. He spends two days a week traveling to other oncologists to train them on the newest advances in oncology. Who would have known?

After finding out that he wasn't a complete dud, we decided to be more assertive advocates in Colleen's fight with cancer. We brought written lists of questions to the consultations and did our best to be as educated as possible. Thats the reason I came to this site in the first place. The more we found out about the state of treatment for Her2 cancer, the more we realized our oncologist was pretty damn good.

Would it be better if he had even a small amount of charisma or charm? I suppose so, but the important thing is that he saves Colleen's life and everything else doesn't matter so much.

Lee