doctor recommendation

Nalini's post about a naturopathic doctor got me thinking. Charis and I have been interviewing pediatricians, and we met with Dr. Daniel Brousseau at his office in Pasadena. Brousseau's partner is Dr. Barker, a naturopath. I think Mom may welcome meeting with these doctors since they work closely together. While Barker is a naturopath, Brousseau is a DO (Doctor of Osteopathy), a traditionally-trained MD with additional schooling on osteopathic medicine. They list cancer as one of their interests on their website: http://www.paracelsusla.com/index2.html, although they practice all areas of medicine. Overall, we do think highly of Brousseau, even though we may not decide to use him as our pediatrician.

Another resource for an oncologist - Resa's recommendation

Resa called me today with another recommendation of an oncologist. Some years ago her mother had some calcification and Kaiser botched up some part of her diagnosis. She and Resa met Dr. Helena Chang of the Revlon UCLA Breast Center and were extremely impressed with her. She immediately identified the problem and seems to be noted for her compassionate approach.

Here is some info about her that you can look at:
http://www.businesslife.com/newsstand/bl_pastissues/2001/sept01/chang.html
http://dgsom.healthsciences.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=9534
http://www.jccf.mednet.ucla.edu/research/revlon.html

Hope all this information isn't overwhelming!

Love, N

Naturopathic doctor recommendation

I saw my naturopathic doctor, Connie Burns, today. At the end of my visit I asked her for a recommendation of a naturopathic doctor in LA whom Mom could visit. She checked the list of people in LA and highly recommended Holly Lucille N.D., R.N. From visiting Holly's website, I think a visit would be well worthwhile.

Look at the following for more details:
http://www.calnd.org/find_detail.asp?Region=Los+Angeles+County&OfficeLocationID=210
http://www.allheallucille.com/index.htm

N

Using acupuncture to offset chemo

Diana Lightman of Ramagiri Ashram spoke to me yesterday to inquire about Mom's health. She mentioned that she has a friend going through chemotherapy who is also getting acupuncture treatments and feels that the acupuncture is reducing the side effects of the chemotherapy. Another thing to keep in mind.

N

A personal story of experience with Breast Cancer and Holistic care

Take a look at this entry from Sue Pembrey an Englist nurse who battled breast cancer.

http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Cancer/pembry33.htm

Link to virtual tour of new Poway house

13406 Ketron Avenue, Poway, CA 92064

Breast cancer and Ayurveda

One of Satish's classmates, who lives in Sunnyvale, has also been dealing with breast cancer and has just contacted my friend Pratichi Mathur, who is an excellent Ayurvedic practitioner. Pratichi wrote to me a few days ago with regard to Satish's friend saying:

Ayurveda always helps either as main therapy (depending on it being an early enough stage) or as adjunct therapy......she may need to see me on a pretty reg basis if she requires my services.

Pratichi's contact info:
Pratichi Mathur
www.healingmission.com, pratichi.mathur@gmail.com, 925.915.1369

N

Nalini and Satish's wedding, honeymoon photos

OK, just to put some different topics up here, I am posting the links (which you all have already seen) for our wedding and PAWS visit.

1. Wedding pictures
2. PAWS trip photos
   

N

Resources for oncologists, cancer info

Dr. Panchanathan (who is also Mom's GP) has been urging Mom to contact an oncologist at the Norris Cancer Center at USC. Their website is http://www.norriscancerhospital.com. You can go to their Find Physician page and put in a radius around your zipcode. The closest one is Dr. Sant Chawla (Indian), M.D. in Santa Monica. He is also associated with the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica.

Another very interesting resource I found is The Angeles Clinic in Santa Monica: http://www.theangelesclinic.org/. In particular, Dr. Silvana Martino, a female breast cancer specialist. Here is some info about her: http://www.theangelesclinic.org/default.asp?pageID=Martino.

N

Visit to Dr. Zamudio on Wednesday, 8/8/07

I accompanied Mom to Dr. Santiago Zamudio's office on Wednesday, August 8th. This was a follow-up to her lumpectomy surgery on Friday, August 3rd. Dr. Z is an older Peruvian gentleman with a gentle laid-back manner. Note: he is a surgeon, not an oncologist. At the bottom of this post I have his particulars.

Mom has been having extremely high BP in spite of the allopathic medication and holistic supplements she has been taking. During this visit her BP was 168/93 and her heartrate was 54. The nurse commented on the high BP and asked her if she was nervous about seeing the doctor.

Dr. Z comments: The area around the tumor was clear. They took a biopsy sample of 8 lymph nodes and found cancerous tumors in 2 of them, which he felt good about. The technical terms was classification T1 for the tumor itself being on the smaller side, and N1 for fewer than 2 nodes having cancer. The prognostic markers had not yet been determined - from what I understand this indicates the hormonal imbalance linked to this cancer.

I asked Dr. Z if all this might indicate that the cancer had been caught early. He responded that he could not answer that since it takes about 5 years for a tumor to grow from 1 cell to about 1 cm.

He checked her drain (on the side of her left breast after the lumpectomy) and felt that it could not yet be removed but needed to drain a little longer. He also asked her to "milk" it to have it drain faster. She would need to come in again next week to have it removed, although if it had drained substantially by Thursday afternoon he might be able to remove it on Friday morning. (Note: I did take Mom to the hospital on Roscoe Blvd. on Friday morning to have him see about removing the drain but because of a series of miscommunications with the nursing staff, we did not end up seeing him. At this point, she will go to his office next week to have it removed.)

He told her that it would not be a problem for her to shower now (she hadn't since Friday) and to drive on her own (she hadn't been because of the pain after the surgery and the pain medication could have made her drowsy).

His recommendations to Mom were that after the wound has healed she should see an oncologist. He also felt that if she went through the proper steps she should be able to handle it.

N


Dr. Z's contact info:

Dr. Santiago Zamudio, M.D. - General and Vascular Surgery
14624 Sherman Way, Suite 101, Van Nuys, CA 91405, 818.781.0644
1830 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 124, L.A., CA 90006, 213.637.9080

Our family blog

Welcome to the Ramji family blog page. This is a private page which only our family members can view. I propose that we use this area to post things that are going on. I will admit that the reason I thought of creating this - since we have tried similar things unsuccessfully in the past - is that we all need to stay in touch about Mom's illness and share ideas or information about ways to help her. Since we are now spread up and down the West Coast it will be hard to make sure we're all in touch otherwise. However, I'd like to see other things on here as well - such as the link to the virtual tour of Dilip and Monica's new house (hint!), what name Ashwin and Charis finally come up with for our newest niece, and whether I end up making a living or just having Satish support me;)...and of course whenever Ashok finds that right girl...!

Anyways, I'll post an item with my notes from my visit with Mom on Wednesday to the doctor, as well as some options I've been researching.

Love, Nalini