Today is the day...

Today is the day my hubby and I made the decision to go forward with the process of getting in to see Dr. Zelefsky at Sloan.

First we called DR. Zelefsky's number he gave us in the email and were directed on the to 'new patient' representative. Very, very nice and compassionate person. I told her the situation and that my hubby wants to come see Dr. Zelefsky. (hubby has some hearing issues so he wants me to take the lead with phone calls) She took a bit of info and told us what is expected. She then said she just sent us a new patient pkg via email (wow that was fast!) and that all the info on how to get things done is included in it. She said once they get all the info a rep. will call us and make an appt. She said that the wait time after they receive all a patient's info is roughly 3 weeks.

We opened the email and began the process....

First things first, where are my slides I sent to JHU for 2nd opinion?? Dr. Zelefsky wants them. I call our hospital and they said the slides weren't returned yet so I called JHU and they said they still had the slides and that they don't get returned out of que unless they get a request from a patient or hospital for them. Request made. He was so nice there. I told him my situation and he said he will send these back overnight express and they should be at Strong hosp by 10AM. Very nice of him. Done.
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Next I called Strong back and told them they will be there tomorrow. She said she needs to send me a HIPPA release form(thank God for Faxes) to fill out and send back to her with a request for sending the slides to Sloan. HIPPA form received and faxed back with request. Done.

Next, Dr. Zelensky wanted the MRI and Bone Scan on CD. We both wondered what is safer to pick it up at the hospital 1 hr away and send it out ourselves or trust them to send it. We called Radiology at Strong and they said this was not the correct place and that we needed the Film Library. They were nice enough to connect us. There we talked to a pleasant tech who listened to our story and said that we could do the sending both ways and that to put us at ease she will put the bone scan and MRI on 1 CD and she will send it out to Sloan today and she would also send us a copy for safe keeping. Ahh...Done.

Next we had to make a cover letter for Medical Records to request our records be sent from Strong to Sloan. Thankfully I had their number from a previous request. We made out the front fax sheet and wrote our note and thought we better send the HIPPA form just filled out for the slides just in case and to Cover our ___. Done.

Now, we wait a bit and then start the checking to see who received what.

Honestly, my hubby and I don't know how in the world an elderly person or someone whose mind isn't completely sharp could handle this. I feel for them.

We hope we did things correctly so far and cross our fingers that the phone will ring soon...so we can get on with our lives, and put this in our back pocket only to be taken out when absolutely needed...

Great job. Thanks for all the details,
Andrew

Sounds like a great game plan. Nice execution to boot.

Oh...and no Roswell Park? Just because they aren't mentioned here doesn't mean they s..k ya know. LOL Kidding....mostly :)

You are using great judgement and calculated planning at a time when many folks are almost paralyzed by emotion. Good for you and your husband!

Reading your stats, he doesn't appear to have very extensive or very aggressive cancer, and, after treatment, you should expect to enjoy many years together.

Nice post, and yes it sounds like you followed all the procedures correctly. I contacted Zelefsky, and got the same email package, and the same requests for info. I didn't want to wait though, and so i met with Dr Gewanter, his colleague who is chief of Rad Onc at the 2 long island facilities of Sloan. But the process was more or less the same.

My trip to get the CDs of the scans was only a 15 minute drive so i picked them up and overnighted them myself, but if it was an hour i would have done what you did, have them sent directly. And yup, i had to contact Epsteins office and get the slides sent back to Winthrop then have Winthrop send them to Sloan in the city for 3rd opinion. It all worked out.

I'm sure it will for you as well. Good luck. And obvously keep us posted.

Yeah, I guess cancer does scare the beejeezus out of a lot of people and I guess just ignore it and hope it goes away. Seems very odd to me though.