http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/03/grant-achatz-on-the-oprah-winfrey-show-video/

I don't know about this interview at all and about what it implies. I do think patients should be thier own advocates but searching for a Dr. to do the treatment you woudl prefer is just not wise advice to give to anyone.

What do other people think?

I know its harder for me since I did have the reccomended treatment he is describing.

Do you think this case will change the protocol for treatment??

Would love to get other peoples thoughts as I sort of bristle when I hear this guy speak.

This is the first time I have seen this interview. I do not agree with eith the patient or the doctor who recommend doctor shopping. If you go to enough doctors eventually you will find someone who will do what you want. That does not mean you will be sucessfully treated or survive. Its one thing to go for a second or third opinion but its completely different when doctor shopping.

The comment about his career is plain stupid, its a job not a life. Every one of us has in different ways altered their lives because of OC. Of course standing up for yoruself and being your own advocate can be a very good thing, but the interview seemed to lead patients to delay treatments til they found an agreeable plan. That could mean the difference between life and death.

I completely agree with you as to how this implies that this was the right choice and others should follow this lead sends the wrong message.

Of course this is all just my humble opinion without any medical degree to back it up

Thanks Christine! Glad someone else feels the same. Strange that Oprah would advocate that point of view too! I'm glad that he is doing so well but its not really his place to be giving the advice he did. It just struck me as so wrong.

Christine,

I'd wager than any chef at his level would disagree with your assessment that its not a life but a job. It is his life just as much as a playing cello is YoYo Ma's life or painting was Picasso's life. He is an artist and food is his palette and without his tongue... well, I understand his point completely.

That said, the 'celebrity' standing up and telling people that his or her way is the only way or the best way is, in my opinion, arrogance of the worst kind. Not everyone has the resources, the money or the smarts to see doctor after doctor finding the 'right' treatment and I think any patient seeing that that hasn't done this, or can't do it, is going to feel that they've failed in some way. I think this is horridly unfair and does a horrible disservice to people when they are at their weakest.

Our beloved DavidCPA also went to FIVE different doctors and basically did the exact same thing as Greg Atchatz. Yet I know none of you are mad at DavidCPA. I heard a different message: don't let dentists and doctors tell you nothing is wrong when you have so much pain in your tongue that you can't eat solid food. I think it is significant that Chef Atchatz did not go to a CCC for those four other opinions: I had stage IV and my team wanted to "spare" me the surgery. I was ecstatic about not having a PEG, not having a neck dissection and not having my tongue cut out. So I can really empathize with him
But I hear you all too as one year later, there I am being told I have to have all this surgery and may never be able to eat again or else I will die in six months to a year. Even worse, after the neck dissection and glossectemy, the pathology report comes back and they all tell me that even though I have had the surgery, the cancer will come back and my only hope is even more radiation and chemo.
I only wish my cancer had been caught before Stage IV and that is what I heard on the interview and what Oprah repeated as her closing comment. What makes me mad is that there are thousands of dentists and doctors out there who still do not recognize the signs of oral cancer. Just my opinion also, not any more valid than your feelings about the interview.
Charm

I think Greg did make some great points. I do think patients need to push for the right answers.

the problem can be that they don't get the answer they want.

Hell, I had many tell me that it will go away LOL I sure wish it would after all this time and many procedures. I took one good Dr to find it and another to biopsy it. You just have to hit high gear and get a running start with a good Dr.

I'm sure each of our situations can be different and I can only speak to mine with any degree of authority.

When I found my lump in my neck shaving one am I told no one since it didn't involve pain. A month went by and I finally said something to my wife and she screamed, "my God, you have golf balls in there, ARE YOU STUPID!!" Guess so....anyway, she called our neighbor, plastic surgeon, who saw me and referred me to a neck surgeon (doctor #1) who said he didn't know what they were but regardless they should not be cut out.

My wife wanted those suckers out so she got me another appointment with another neck guy (#2) who said regardless of what they are they need to come out. He scheduled an operation and I got my blood work done and was to come back in 2 days.

Confused I told my wife I needed to see another doc so she called another neighbor who is a MO. Went to see him (#3) and he put me on antibiotics saying it couldn't be cancer as I didn't fit the profile. Was told to come back in 3 weeks to see if they had shrunk. They did shrink.

She wasn't happy so she told me I had to take her mom to an ENT because she was having balance issues. When he (#4) finished with my MIL he turned to me and said "so I understand I need to take a look at your lumps". Man was I unhappy with my wife because she just wouldn't let this thing alone! Anyway he did a FNA and after 10 horrible days he confirmed that I had SCC. he gave me a 60% chance of survival after a radical ND and chemo and rad. Sensing that I was not happy with his recommendations he referred me to Moffitt.

I was due to go back to Dr #3 the next day and he had already talked to the ENT and said he would only recommend a partial ND, just removing the 2 positive nodes and then chemo and rad and he gave me a 70% survival rate.

Next day I went to Moffitt, a CCC (#5) and after their tests, Primary biopsy and team evaluation they recommended no ND but chemo and rad and they gave me a 80 to 90% chance of survival.

What would you have done?

Hi, everyone,

I imagine that most people on this board feel that they were either under-treated or over-treated based on their outcome and side effects. I have followed Grant Achatz's story off and on and have thought about this issue quite a bit. I think there are multiple components to decisions about treatment including (my take on what I've read about him) that he was willing to risk the possibility of not living in order to avoid what he viewed as untenable consequences of the more aggressive treatment. I can understand that. I think my husband was treated more aggressively than will others with his particular situation in the future and he has some side effects to show for it - but for him that was the "right" decision. It would have been difficult for us to try a less aggressive treatment if it didn't work out and wonderful for us if it did!

Sophie