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Would I be welcome here?


kimblanchard

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Hi Joe, I guess I don't have to tell you that you are, indeed, welcome here.

I'm a clinical nurse specialist - my father died of NSCLC about 6 years ago, so my personal connection to LC is somewhat remote (although my Dad's memory is not). I'm doing symptom management research in people w/ lung cancer, and the folks here have been incredibly welcoming.

Glad you are "on board." - Teresa

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Dr. Joe

I often wondered if dr.'s ever came here to see what a patient or loved one feels like. I think its great that you have the concern for your patients to come here and get things from a different perspective. I would LOVE for you to stay here. We could learn alot from each other!

Welcome Welcome Welcome!!!

Jamie

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Welcome, Dr. Joe!

Thanks for your interest, and for seeing us as human beings, not as statistics. You'll find this site informative, encouraging and filled with very, very intelligent and caring people who want to learn as much as they can about their disease.

Be prepared for some intelligent and thought-provoking questions and conversations! I had mentioned how I had found this site to my nurse/advocate, and that it had helped me immeasurably..... and she agreed it was one of the best (if not THE best) sites of its kind.

Welcome, and thank you......look forward to "seeing" you often.

Mary

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Dear Oncodoc, JOE!

Do you feel WELCOMED ??? :D Now I KNOW there is a GOD, cause he sent you to us!!! WOW!!!!! :D I am SO impressed that you are so willing to take the time to spend with all of us and to share your wonderful knowledge of Lung Cancer. HOW LUCKY ARE WE??? Pretty lucky!!! Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!!!! I totally apprecaite the fact that you are willing to spend time with us and lend a helping hand now and then. THANK YOU!

Best wishes to you, and if you don't mind, maybe you could share some of your back ground with us. I don't need addresses, or anything like that, but just maybe you could share some information on your education and family life. I look forward to getting to know you better.

No need to write a book, just a little info is all. :wink:

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I can only add my unqualified WELCOME. And, in fact, invite some of your co-workers and other medical proffessionals who deal with this disease to come join us! The more that you folks understand how we feel, the more WE understand how YOU feel about this disease the more we can work TOGETHER. And that means more people survive this disease.

Dean

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My husband already welcomed you but I need to as well.

Are you welcome here?

HELL YES.

THANKS FOR COMING.

We are lucky, Dave has an awesome oncologist, my mother also now has colon cancer and is seeing him as well, he is a very caring individual, very good, very good guy.

But we have room in our hearts for you, too!

God Bless! You have a very difficult job!

Karen C.

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Ahem, yup pretty overwhelmed! Thanks all for the REALLY warm welcome! And I've already littered your board with my posts so I'm settling right in.

Connie B. asked me to post about myself so here goes.

I am a medical oncologist in Minnesota (no, not Rochester, Minneapolis actually). I'm 37, have been in practice for going on 6 years so I'm still a whippersnapper but not quite as wet behind the ears as I used to be.

I work at a pretty large medical center, we have about 500 doctors, 7 oncologists with 3 more on the way (Thank God!) I have always had a special interest in lung cancer and when I joined my group, I became a little distressed about the way that we were going about treating this difficult disease. There was little communication between the pulmonologists, thoracic surgeons and radiation/medical oncologists. This disease demands to be treated by a team, not a collection of individuals.

Two years ago, after much politicking, I established a lung cancer program at our medical center of which I am medical director. It has completely changed the way we treat the disease. We now have a nurse practitioner who works with me to coordinate the care of all of the new cases we treat (about 150-200 per year). She receives a schedule with every bronchoscopy or CT guided biopsy that takes place at our hospital and contacts every patient right away after diagnosis. She coordinates all of their appointments, scans, etc after reviewing the case with me. We then review every new case in our conference which is attended by medical oncology, radiation oncology, pulmonology, radiology, pathology and thoracic surgery. We review every scan and path report and then as a team discuss what the best treatment approach would be. It has made a world of difference. Just getting a bunch of people to re-review the scans often reveals something that affects treatment (I know, scary thought!) And its like getting a second, third and fourth opinion at once.

Anyways sorry for the commercial! I just have very strong feelings about this and I think more and more community cancer centers are adopting this approach.

As far as personal life, I am married, have a very cute 18 month old boy and work way way too much.

Look forward to meeting all of you!

Joe

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hi dr. joe,

thank you for your bio. i'm so grateful to see all that you have accomplished to help lung cancer patients at your hospital. the conjoined effort between all the doctors is a definitely plus. there are several hospitals in the los angeles area that i have heard practice similar strategies. unfortunately, my mom's docs and hospitals do not have this type of program intact, so it's often arduous to get info from all the docs involved in my mom's case in a timely fashion. hopefully more oncos will follow your example and start establishing more programs like the one you have helped institute. thank you for all of you advice too. it is immensely helpful, and i'm sure that we'll have plenty of questions to ask you in the near future!

God bless,

mj

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Joe, you are one cool dude in my book. It is so refreshing to have an MD in this field who thinks and feels like you do. Makes me want to be in Minneapolis with my wife under your care, although she has a super onc that we wouldn't trade right now. You bring us your expertise, your support and your hope. Are we lucky or what? Praise God. Don

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