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Thank you for being here...and
what an honor it is for me to say that you are Venezuelan...
Well, I have to say, your attitude makes me feel happy.
With your message I am sure that you are helping a lot of people and you don't even imagine where they are....
What is your specialty?
Leukemia, Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma. These are all blood and bone marrow diseases.
So if I had to decipher my area of expertise, I would say that is my area of specialty.
How do you categorize the different types of Cancer?
Solid Cancers are normally organs, like breast cancer, lung cancer,
colon cancer, prostate cancer...those are solid because organs are solid.
Liquid Cancers refers to blood and lymph system cancers.
In which you can find lymphomas, myelomas and leukemia.
What do cancer patients have in common?
From my point of view, what all cancer patients have in common is
the psychological part, the mental part, the fact of dealing with such a complicated
and deadly illness
without knowing that a lot of cancer cases can be cured
we cure more cancers than, for example, hypertension which can't be cured, diabetes which can't be cured,
renal failure which can't be cured... But, 40% of cancer patients are cured.
How do you help patients to receive their first diagnosis?
The initial diagnosis comes as a shock, of course. A lot of my patients
come to me already diagnosed. On the first visit, I always try to say:
Well, we have this diagnosis, um...
We have to do certain exams to see how far along
and advanced the problem is and...Let's see how we are going to resolve it.
This way I tell them, not how we are going to treat nor how we are going to cure it. I say, Let's see how we are going to resolve it...
that is the word I use.
Do you recommend the Internet as a reliable source of information for your patients?
The Internet is a double-edged sword, because there is a lot of information, but you don't know who posted that information there.
I then try to guide them to websites I am familiar with,
from which I know the source. But on the Internet you are going to find
ugly things and stories, as two hundred types of different cures.
Which aren't the ones I studied, which aren't chemotherapy, surgery or radiation...
and most of the time I tell my patients: Inform yourselves, read on the Internet,
but write down your doubts and I will answer them.
Do you know something? One of the things I have noticed
is that a lot of people think that what I had wasn't serious...
What was my diagnosis? Tell me, as my doctor?
You had a lymphoma that is called "Small cell Lymphoma",
stage 4. Which means that it is the furthest stage.
You had damaged lymph nodes throughout your whole body. Your spleen was damaged,
as was 90% of your bone marrow,
meaning your lymphoma had invaded it...and when we did the bone marrow chromosome study
a mean, I don't remember exactly, but you had
between 10 and 20 different chromosome anomalies on your bone marrow.
Those lymphomas are high risk ones
and usually don't have a good outcome. When I saw you,
well... I knew... If we can give her chemotherapy there is a chance
of placing her in remission. Of course, you remember
your chemotherapies kept me at my office late at night...
I had to stay with you and with my nurses...
Yes, I have to point out that you said: "I will stay with you until you receive the last drop of treatment".
Yes, because you had all the side effects...
Follow up on the second part of the interview.