An afternoon at HealthEast Cancer Care, St. John's Hospital

I was ready to like St. John's because of the high praise it had received from someone whom I respect a great deal. And it lived up to my expectations from the initial phone calls, to the moment we walked into Cancer Care and were greeted by the receptionist and throughout our appointments yesterday. The atmosphere there is professional, caring and thoughtful but not grim.
We met first with an RN from the Breast Center who recorded my (up to this point) very boring health history and gave an overview of radiation treatments and answered a number of questions. Tanya, the radiation oncology RN, took my vitals. Next, we talked for close to an hour with Dr. June Kim, the radiation oncologist. She is clearly very dedicated to her work. She drew several pictures for us: a cross section of the breast, two different views of a milk duct with DCIS, a representation of the tissue that would have been sent to the pathology lab along with an explanation of how the lab would prepare and analyze the sample. She explained the radiation procedure in the same level of detail and answered more questions. (Yes, I have an endless supply of questions).
Our final appointment was with Dr. Cheema, the medical oncologist. He's intelligent and funny and a Packers fan. He was very eloquent about the benefits of tamoxifen. I think my acknowledged reluctance may have brought out the best in him. He answered his share of questions as well. Before leaving, we checked in with Tanya again and she gave us a quick review of the information folder she had prepared.
As I said in last night's post, our visit had the 'just right' feeling I was looking for and our time there not only added to our growing knowledge of what this is all about but boosted our confidence.