“Dr. Reggie Sigmon, head of Radiation Oncology, made me feel comfortable with everything.  His attitude said, ‘We’re going to get through this and you’re going to be fine.’  What he was talking about was the squamous cell carcinoma in three lymph nodes in the left side of my neck.  A needle biopsy of a lump on my neck had come out clean, but the lump would never go away.  So a decision was made to take it out.  That’s when the pathologist found that it was cancer. “A modified neck dissection was performed to remove 30 additional lymph nodes in order to see how far the cancer had progressed.  They found that two additional lymph nodes had squamous cells, but the others were clear.  That was good news.

“The bad news was that they still had to do the radiation and the chemo.  And they did it with a newer-generation treatment of chemo that facilitated radiation treatment on both sides of my neck.

“I’m cancer-free now, and what impressed me deeply was how the folks from Radiation Oncology went out of their way to make me feel comfortable, starting with a visit to my room just after surgery. It’s not like they just waited until I showed up on the day my radiation started.

“I loved the way they listened to everything I had to say, and were never in a hurry to get me in and out.  And I very much appreciated their sense of humor, too. It was a wonderful pick-me-up.

“So thanks Dr. Sigmon and to everyone on your team!  You conveyed a feeling of family; that’s about the easiest way to put it.  I felt like you were all in it with me, all the way.”  
 
                    – Randy Curtis