Dr. Little and Dr. Jiang

ANDREW WRITES:

I plan to start Radiation and Chemotherapy on the same day - either April 2 or April 9th. They'll finalize the date this week.

Dr. Little - Radiation Oncologist
So after much answered prayer we concluded that Dr. Little at the Flynn Cancer Center in Everett would be the best choice for my radiation treatment over Dr. Takamiya at the Swedish Cancer Institute and Dr. Wisbeck at the Flynn Cancer Center. For those who are interested in knowing our reasons...here goes.

We were first referred to Dr. Wisbeck by my surgeon, as they have worked together for many years. I really liked Dr. Wisbeck when I met him and he seemed to have a lot of experience to back up his title as Director of the Flynn Cancer Center. When I went to see Dr. Takamiya at the Swedish Cancer Institute he told us that if we wanted to be treated at the Flynn Cancer Center we should go see Dr. Little instead since they went to school together at UCSF and trained on the new Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) machines, which have become the standard for head and neck cancer over the past 5 years. So I went back and politely asked Dr. Wisbeck if he has had enough experience using the new technology to treat me properly. To my surprise he told me that he has Dr. Little look over all his treatment plans for IMRT, and that if I wanted to switch and be treated by Dr. Little he wouldn't be offended at all. So we were able to get a short notice appointment with Dr. Little and he assured us that he and Dr. Wisbeck will both look at my treatment plans. So we decided to be treated by the younger doctor who knows new technology, with older doctor looking over his shoulder. By the way, we had two other opinions from Radiation Oncologists in Seattle, be chose not to be treated by them because it would be too far to drive every weekday for six weeks.

Dr. Jiang - Medical Oncologist
Dr. Wisbeck referred us to Dr. Jiang for my chemotherapy treatment. This decision was an easy one and we didn't feel like we needed multiple opinions for this since it is simply a drug administered by IV at the hospital. The chemotherapy treatment plan will for the most part be indentical to a clinical trial done in Europe in the late 1990's. Even if I had a more complex treatment plan or needed experimental drugs I would definately still go to Dr. Jiang. He's a very nice guy, but more than that he is the biggest nerd in all of Everett.