Never heard of Dr. Miller or is that Dr. Gastero? In any event, as I mentioned in your other thread, ideally you should be evaluated by a liver specialist (hepatologist) as opposed to a gastroenterologist. Not sure where the doc you mentioned fits in. Hepatologists in general are much more knowledgeable and up to date on evaluation and treatment options and protocols. They can usually be found at your larger, teaching hospitals. If its not convenient to treat under one (should you decide to treat) you should at least seriously consider seeing one as an outside consult. After that, they could conceivably work with and help coordinate things with your local gastro. This is an arrangement that has worked for several people here.
-- Jim
Oh Dr. Miller is a gastroenterologist, in Canada right? I'm from California, there will be some ppl from Canada sometime this weekend, except weekends are a bit slow around here. So when is the appointment? I'm sure everything will be alright, and someone has heard of that doctor unless he is new. I know your health care is a little different from the US, as a matter of fact a couple of ppl off the top of my head have gone to clinical trial sites in Canada. Hey ppl from Canada, what's up with that?lol I'm sure they just wanted to increase their chances of attaining SVR. I hope your husband is doing well good luck
Dr. Miller is a gastroenterologist, in Canada right?
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That would be my assumption too, now that I've had some sleep :) Hopefully he can get a referral to a hepatologist.
You need to ask ANY gastroenterologist you see what his experience is with treating people with Hep C. As Jim said, ideally you want to see a hepatologist with plenty of experience.
You asked in PM how to get referred to Dr. Heathcote but I'll answer you here for anyone else in our area who might be reading and I hope you don't mind. It's basically call Dr. Heathcote, ask if she'll take you on and if she says yes, she'll likely need a referral from your family doctor. Possible that you could ask your doctor to refer you to Dr. Heathcote and go that route, however this is the route I took and it worked - I was plain with her that I wanted a second opinion and why and they agreed to take me on. Maybe others in Canada can share how they got in to their own really good hepatologists.
If you take that route and he gets in, your husband won't necessarily get Dr. Heathcote and likely not - he'll get assigned to one of any of the hepatologists at the Clinic. However, Dr. Heathcote and Dr. Wong are the main overseers and they are both excellent. I had my reservations about Dr. Heathcote and finally got one on one with her - after my treatment was done! - and it changed my opinions completely. I saw Dr. Wong primarily - who I liked *alot* - however she was primarily responsible for decisions on my treatment whether I saw her in person or not.
One of the distinctive things about the Liver Clinic at TWH (Toronto Western Hospital) is that they have a psychiatrist associated with their clinic who specializes in the mental impacts of Hepatitis C treatment. That is quite a benefit and a resource I was very fortunate to have access to while going through treatment there. As well, because they are one of the major teaching hospitals, a patient there would have access to the main clinical trials coming along. Obviously I'm happy with my care there so I might be a little biased. There are others on this forum who are treating out of Mount Sinai in Toronto who are also happy with their care as well so that's another resource for you.
To contact Dr. Heathcote, her contact information is here:
http://www.uhnres.utoronto.ca/researchers/profile.php?lookup=2389
Good luck to you and your husband.
Trish
"Hopefully he can get a referral to a hepatologist".
Absolutely, especially since his platelets are so low as mentioned in your other post. You want to get someone who is specifically experienced in txing HepC, in all stages. good luck