Please recommend a good BS in Boston

  I see Dr Michelle Spect at Mass General, a lovely caring doctor who is easy to talk to.  They work as a team there. I see Dr John Erban as my oncologist. I took some time off after each surgery (lumpectomies) and time after each chemo treatment

  Good luck

  I see Dr Michelle Spect at Mass General, a lovely caring doctor who is easy to talk to.  They work as a team there. I see Dr John Erban as my oncologist. I took some time off after each surgery (lumpectomies) and time after each chemo treatment

  Good luck

I  saw Dr. Michelle Gadd at MGH and she is so nice, compassionate and easy to talk to.  You have to wait quite awhile at visits but worth it. She even called me on Mother's day to give me some results so I wouldn't be worrying... Good Luck with your decision.I think this part sometimes was the worse... dealing with the "shock" of diagnosis and confusion of where to go and whom to choose...:)

Hi

while I think it is nice to have a surgeon that is kind and compassionate--- at the same time, competence is critical as well.. Also, bear in mind that after your surgery, your surgeon may not be leading your care--if you need a med onc, that will be the person, not the surgeon.  I loved my surgeon, but I only saw her afterwards for a follow up and a 1 year check in-- my med onc is the quarterback for me.  So, if you have confidence in the surgical skills, you might want to just go forward..... 

As for working and all that-- you make those decisions, not the surgeon--- and again, if you need letters, a med onc could write those as well... it is hard to go back to work after being under- you do need a couple of days to bounce back.....it seems unreasonable for the surgeon not to see that

be well.....

HI BostonLex - I loved my BS.  Her name is Dr. Suniti Nimbkar and she works out of Dana Farber and also South Shore Hospital.  She does her surgeries at either the Faulkner Hospital and South Shore Hospital.  She is the head of the South Shore Breast Care Center.  I had a mastectomy on my right breast in March 2008 and I also had my left breast removed in December 2009.  She did both of my surgeries and I cannot say enough about her.  She was great and did a great job.  As weird as it sounds, I get compliments on my mastectomy scar all the time and how good it looks.  I think that is a huge credit to her and how good her work is.

Good Luck with finding BS that you like.

Karen

Dr Michelle Gadd at MGH ; Dr Lawrence Geoghegan at Mount Aubrun Hospital

Barbara Smith at Mass General was my surgeon.  She doesn't return phone calls and refused to order an Oncotype Dx test.  She even refused to answer my request for the test.  She simply ignored me.  When I finally asked her for the third time why she hadn't yet submitted the test as it's standard practice.  She simply stated that "she doesn't follow the same guidelines".  Well...if she had bothered to answer me the first time...I would have gone to a DIFFERENT doctor.   Thanks for wasting my time as my cancer GROWS!  My new docs were/are BAFFLED at what happened while in her care.  They couldn't believe that someone WOULDN'T want the Oncotype data and said that I should have started chemo 4 weeks earlier.  She even BLOCKED me from meeting my own oncologist!  I kept asking to meet my oncologist.  I really hope that people read this and be careful of this doctor.  Something is "off" with her.  There are creepy control issues going on.  It's like she gets pleasure out of delaying cancer patients treatment.  She actually mocked me when I told her I was concerned about the many scheduling mistakes, holding up of testing and blocking me from meeting my oncologist.  Why would a hospital continue to let her practice?  Every doctor that sees my diagnosis date and when I ACTUALLY started chemo is horrified.  Thank you Barbara Smith!  My tumor grew an additional FULL Centimeter because of your bizarre ego.  (Yep...I'm angry.  My life is precious.  Not a game.)

thanks Momand2kids!

Yeah..Dr. Barbara Smith was a nightmare.  I was sooooo impressed with her at our first meeting.  I'm sure she's an excellent surgeon, but her patient management is terrifyingly poor.  She delayed me getting treatment.  She told me that she has 50 patients at one time.  With just one assistant and her crazy busy schedule...she's just not able to give timely care and coordinate testing, etc.  Cancer can't wait for her to get her act together.  She may be good at surgery but she's delaying people's treatment.  She's not able to coordinate care efficiently.  I thought it was me at first...you know just panicking but then when I ran the scenarios and mistakes and scheduling delays by 2 other nationally known (if not world wide) onco and surgeon...they were baffled at the delay of my treatment and the tests that I had not yet received.  She's got a great rep but if you can't get timely treatment from her.....what good is it?  I just want people out there to be aware.  You have to reallllllly watch out!

I had the exact opposite experience with Dr. Smith. I could not have been happier or more pleased with the care I got from her.