Cancer Therapy and Matthew 6:24

Having two thoracic oncologists—one at Scott and White and one at M. D. Anderson—reminds me of Matthew 6: 24

No man can serve two masters . . .

Technically, I suppose I have two servants or more correctly, Blue Cross and I have two servants, but the knowledge differences between doctors and patients really puts doctors in a relative position of authority, so I feel like I have two masters.

Jana and I just returned from Houston where we sought a second opinion on my cancer from the doctors at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). To review, my original treatment plan, the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) plus radiation, has a good record of killing the cancer in the affected chest cavity so that it does not reoccur although it can crop up in the other chest cavity or in another location in the body. When the doctors at Scott and White decided not to do the EPP, chemotherapy (which is not curative) became the course they want to follow. My MDACC oncologist on the other hand wants to gather more information before giving up on going for a cure. He wants answers to a couple of questions first:

• Is it feasible and appropriate to go back into the right chest and remove the cancer that was left in the pericardium?
• Is it reasonable to use radiation therapy to kill any cancer that was left when the pleura was removed with the lung still in place?

Consequently, we are going back to Houston next week for a CT scan, a PET scan, and a visit with a radiation oncologist. After he has the results of the scans he will talk with a thoracic surgeon and get an opinion from the radiation oncologist. This is where serving two masters comes in. S&W is also scheduling a PET scan to provide a baseline for the chemotherapy, but MDACC will not accept a PET scan from another hospital. Furthermore, I’m sure Blue Cross will not pay for two scans, so I have to get with S&W to see if they will accept the PET from MDACC. Working with the two hospitals may delay further action which gives me second thoughts about getting the second opinion. Trying to coordinate work at two hospitals is no fun.

In other news, I got an email today from an editor of http://pages.videojug.com/ who saw this blog and wanted to recruit me to contribute to their site. I think I’m flattered, but I’m not interested in doing anything more than the occasional entry here.

Thanks for reading our blog.

David