Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic
I did not receive treatments at the Mayo Clinic, but greatly believe in Second, Third and Fourth opinions, so yes, go get a second opinion

Mayo Rocks!
hi tiny,

I go to Mayo for diagnostics and have utilized their doctors in different departments for 10 years. I have yet to be disappointed in the way they treat me. And that includes all desk personnel, nurses, doctors, the hotel workers....you name it. Even the wait staff at local restaurants (in Rochester, MN)seem extra kind and understanding. The town is so used to people (like me) walking around with urine collectors, IV's, special diets, running to a public toilet in desperation when the Fleet Phospho kicks in, sitting quietly crying in a corner somewhere.....been there done that.

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester runs like a Swiss Watch....smoothly and with less stress on the patient. You get your testing done in the morning and you meet with your onc in the afternoon with all your RESULTS. If one doc can't help you in a certain department you can go to another that SAME DAY just by waiting for one to be available. They are used to folks traveling from all over the world to come for answers and they try their best to accommodate that fact getting appointments set up conveniently.

My sister, who had adenocarcinoma of the small intestine, had one bad experience with a radiologist who poohed-poohed her wish to have her ovaries lined with lead to protect them from the HEAVY DUTY radiation they were to perform on her while she was opened up. She fired him on the spot and found someone who took her desire to conceive and give birth seriously.

She had a beautiful and healthy baby girl 5 months before she died. She gave us a wonderful present and I am eternally thankful that she had the guts to fire him and advocate for herself. THEY WORK FOR US! Always remember that. YOU CALL THE SHOTS.

The other thing about Mayo and my sister was that she messed around with local doctors (in Milwaukee and Racine, WI) who would not dig deep enough to find what was wrong with her and kept misdiagnosing her condition until it was too late. FINALLY she went to Mayo and they did the proper tests and found her rare cancer and then did what they could.

I LOVE my oncologist at Mayo who has always been willing to work within my alternative medicine protocols and has been one of my best cheerleaders (and who has become a juicer himself after being dx'ed with Stage II colon cancer!) YEA!

Ok, I know I am totally singing the praises of Mayo, but when it comes to the devastation that a cancer diagnosis can carry, it's comforting to be so well taken care of--especially for someone like me who is a tad bit "out there" when it comes to Western medicine.

Hope this helps.

peace, emily who honestly does not get a kickback from Mayo--I promise! HA! :-)

hi
i went to mayo as well and my experiences were mostly very good. It is such a very nice place and so clean and everyone is so friendly. You are able to get in quickly and as was already mentioned you get your results fast. When i got my ct scan the radiologist was in the room right behind me already reading it as i was on the table. Even the preps they give you for tests are way more tolerable than i have had in other places. I asked for a copy of my medical records and i had them in my hand in less than 15 minutes free of charge...just so many good things i can say. I highly recommend Brentwood on Fifth if you want a very cheap ($75.00 a night ) very clean place to stay with a kitchenette and very large rooms and walking distance to mayo. They did have me on quite a rollercoaster because they misinterpreted a report in a medical record i had brought with me from my local hospital, and instead of believing what i was telling them that the doctor had told me and instead of actually calling him to verify that they pretty much told me i had a very advanced cancer that could be "managed" when in fact i had a malignant polyp basically a stage 1 except for 1 lymph node...but that was only 2 doctors and they were still very nice. One other thing i thought was strange is that they don't do the substages .. you are just stage II or stage III for example not stage III a etc.. i didn't care for that because when they gave me my statistics it was for ther overall stage.