Comprehensive Breast Cancer Treatment & Advocacy

>> I found and a lump in shower May 1st in the evening but it could not be anything I am only 34 years old. I couldn't imagine that it is breast cancer. No real family history of it other than my maternal grandmother [inaudible] breast cancer at 34. She was [inaudible] went to the doctor a few days later got in I was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer and they referred me to a general surgeon. The general surgeon then said, well the best course of treatment for you is probably [inaudible] radiation, you could do mastectomy but it is going to have the same results down the road. I said okay it's not going to be like my breast and just be done with the radiation and that would it. It turns out I didn't have [inaudible] and that's when they did the lumpectomy, June 24th and there was a questionable lymph node involvement on one side. So they sent me to the oncologist who then referred me to a radiation oncologist who then sent me to a medical oncologist who all this time said, we don't know what's going to be next. There was no course of treatment. Nobody was really heading up my case. Nobody was saying this is the type of treatment you need, because of your age and the risk factors, this is what you should do. Nobody was doing any of that. It was just a lot of communication with the doctors up there and the different offices so I sought out the help of a family friend and she helped me get me get a second opinion and I was fortunate to find Dr. Singhal at El Camino Hospital and I was able to get a meeting with her within 48 hours and I spent an hour and a half in [inaudible] with her and knew that she was the doctor who would take care of me. So I came back to my local interns and my local doctors and told them that she was the doctor that I want to oversee my care and it was a battle. They denied it. They denied it. They denied it, and like I kept fighting and Dr. Singhal was great in helping provide any information I needed and was [inaudible] advocate for me saying this is the treatment that she needs. She has not been taken well cared of and so finally late October, the insurance company agreed and November 2nd I had a double lumpectomy at El Camino Hospital. Dr. Singhal performed that and Dr. Fazilat performed immediate reconstruction and since then I had followup with Dr. Singhal. She has been-- just great about checking with me to see how I'm doing. All appointments have been very easy. I had follow up treatment for the reconstruction with Dr. Fazilat. She has also been a great doctor and they are very aware of what my needs are and what my fears are and the complications about whether I need chemo. It was kind of left up to me whether or not [inaudible] medium risk group. And so I consulted with Dr. Singhal, should I trust her opinion and she talked to her colleagues and got some information and gave me the pros and the cons and offered what she thought might be the best course of treatment for me and whether or not I should do it. And with her backing and support, I made a decision to follow up my lumpectomy with chemotherapy and I'm currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Working with El Camino and Dr Singhal is-- that all of the cancer care is in one place. It is a coordinated effort. The doctors talk to each other. Like I said, Dr. Singhal was able help refer other colleagues about my case in particular, or my specific tumor, my breast, my age you now recurrent risks, and things like that. [Inaudible] would talk with other oncologists and get an informed consent to help me make a decision and working with Dr Fazilat and Dr. Singhal, I'm not a-- traveling down here they're very helpful and supporting and they make sure I get [inaudible] on the same day. They talk to one another. They know exactly when I'm going to be here, what my needs are when chemo is. When the next followup is. So having that coordinated care all together in one place is tremendously helpful. So my previous experience of having doctors that work within you know 10 to 50 miles of each other but couldn't ever talk to each other and never met each other. They never spoken to each other about my case in particular. It was even-- it took three weeks to get information from one doctor to the other in that local area and down here it is within a very short time frame. Dr Singhal will call me back or e-mail me. So it is definitely a benefit that El Camino has got everything in one place. Being at El Camino Hospital has brought me a lot of comfort and a lot of peace of mind. I know now that I'm in the midst of my treatment. I have had my surgery, I'm in the middle of chemotherapy, and I know when that is done I will have follow up surgery or going forward I will know that I had the best of care possible that I had. People who are interested in taking care of me and making sure that I am going to be around for years to come. Dr Singhal told me early on, she said, my job is to make sure you are here 40, 50 years from now. And that was important to me and I am taking treatments is I want somebody who understood that I is important for me to be here for my niece and my nephews and family you know this is a scary things and to tell young kids that your aunt has cancer there first thought is, is she going to live, is she going to die, is she going to be around for a while? And knowing, you know, Dr Singhal took that into consideration in planning my treatment and helping me get the best care possible and being aggressive doing the chemotherapy on [inaudible] that I would be here down the road has been a tremendous source of comfort for me and I know that going forward I will have followup appointments with her and she will be a partner with me in keeping the cancer away for years to come.