Question:
My husband was just diagnosed last week with Stage IV melanoma
(lymphatic involvement-it's mestatized) .
The doctor told him he had two years without chemo/radiation and maybe
10 yrs with the treatments.
My husband is 33 and this is the first health problem he's ever had.
Needless to say, it's been upsetting. We are going through San
Francisco's Kaiser. The experience has been disappointing and slow, to
say the least.
We don't have a lot of money and we don't even know where to start or
how to negotiate this process. They can't even find the mole that
started the cancer. I've heard that Sloan-Kettering is a good place for
this kind of treatment. Is this expensive? Are there alternative
programs for which he can volunteer? Does anyone survive this disease
in it's more advanced stages?
Answer:
Try looking in PDQ, a database from the National Cancer Institute. They have
the latest information (updated monthly) about most kinds of cancer, with
clearly written summaries for patients explaining staging, treatment
options, survival statistics, etc. There are also summaries for doctors
(read them too) and a physician list by specialty and geographic location
(down to zip code level). There is information about clinical trials, too,
which might be good for you to consider since sometimes the treatments are
free if you are part of a research protocol at NIH for example.
Sloan-Kettering is an excellent place, but likely quite expensive. You
should really talk to Kaiser about how much will be covered if you go
somewhere else. Sometimes if you can get the doctors to say this treatment
is only available there or there is some other pressing reason why Kaiser
can't provide what is needed and you have to go elsewhere, they may cover
more than if you just self-refer.
If you need help with transportation costs, the Corporate Angel Network will
fly a cancer patient and one companion anywhere in the USA for free for
diagnosis or treatment.
The addresses of these places are:
PDQ-- http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/pdq.htm
Corporate Angel Network--www.mach2media.com/can/CAN1
