Local Surgical Oncologist

We met with an IHC Surgical Oncologist yesterday, Dr. Bowles. What a terrific person. Dr. Bowles' did her fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where (among other things)she participated in HIPEC surgeries. So, she has hands-on experience with this procedure. However, she does not currently do HIPEC surgeries here as she (also) believes they should only be done at large centers of excellence such as UCSD and Dr. Lowy. She's familiar with Dr. Lowy and feels he's an excellent Surgical Oncologist.

Dr. Bowles also said that if she was asked to perform -only- the tumor debulking (CRS) surgery, she wouldn't do it even though she technically could. She does not believe that the surgery is beneficial without the hot chemo (HIPEC.) She feels the tumors would come back and that the hot chemo is necessary to have hope in the *( long term outcome of the procedure.

Dr. Bowles was so, so very kind and was willing to write a letter of opinion for us to give the Appeal panel this Monday. We received it this evening and it's very objective and informative and states that she believes Blake is an excellent candidate for the entire procedure. We already have a letter from Dr. Whisenant and expect to receive a letter from Dr. Lowy's office tomorrow. Dr. Lowy was also supposed to talk with SelectHealth's medical director today, I hope to hear that the discussion happened.

We hope the Appeals panel will make their decisions based on information that's been provided by Blakes doctors. I know this is pretty cynical but, do you think they'll even read them?? I mean, seriously! The appeal written to the "Grievance Committee" contained a lot of good, valuable and valid information (actual peer reviewed studies) and they didn't seem to pay much attention to it.

Well, as I said before - I have no idea how this will turn out. UCSD said that if it doesn't get approved that we should contact the UCSD finaicial department and look into private paying for the procedure but there is absolutely no way we could even begin to pay for the procedure - it's an insurmountable cost.

Like I've said before, we just have to have hope, I just don't know what more we can do.

Blake is still pretty tired but seems to be on the up-swing from getting chemo last week. It sure will be nice for him to not have chemo again for a while!!

Love to all, Kathy