Friday Jan 9, 2009 -- Both Pat and Tom had recommended that I get at least one second opinion outside of Kaiser and they both liked their medical oncologist, Dr. Sirott, who had a private practice and worked at John Muir Hospital. I had made an appointment with Dr. Sirott around Dec 16th so I was very disappointed when I was told the day before my appointment that Dr. Sirott was not available and that I would be meeting with Dr. Chen. The meeting was OK but not what I wanted.

Luckily, a retired Chevron friend, who had his cancer treated at UCSF, referred me to his oncologist who in turn referred me to the Chairman of the Head and Neck Surgery Department at UCSF. So I now had an opportunity to get an opinion from one of the top cancer centers in the US.