Kim. . .my current oncologist is Robert Jotte. He is with Rocky Mountain Cancer Center. He practices at the Mid-Town location and also Parker. Mid-Town is northeast of the Capitol, so traffic can be bad depending upon time of day. However, I have heard that the staff at Mid-Town is better than the staff at Parker. Dr. Jotte has quite a few cml patients. What I like about him is that he takes the time to get to know you and your situation. He listens to you and answers questions. He is open to ideas, although he certainly has his own opinions. He is not particularly open to reduced dosage because there isn't a whole lot of long-term research out there yet. However, he may be changing his mind about that as the data comes in. At my last appt, he mentioned that he will be signing up patients for an upcoming trial on either reduced dosage or stopping meds (can't remember which). I don't qualify, so he only mentioned it in passing. But what that said to me, is that he stays up on research. That's an important quality, I think. He's youngish (at least younger than me--in his late 30s or early 40s I would guess), so he'll be around for awhile. I heard about him from a motorcycle buddy's wife, who had CLL. She was adamant about how great he and the Mid-Town staff were. Her CLL morphed into Hodgkins Lymphoma and she went through an awful time with a transplant. Dr. Jotte went to bat for her with the insurance company when she underwent an experimental treatment. She did not survive the transplant and died from complications, unfortunately.
Denver is a big place and there are lots of oncologists. I'm pretty picky. . .Dr. Jotte is my 4th oncologist. I really like him. His PA, Sierra is really great. I annoy her with phone calls all the time, and she always gets back to me. She is wonderful about calling in prescriptions, and mailing my lab reports to me, if they aren't available at my appointments (they usually are). Anything she mails me has a short handwritten note with it.
When you get to Denver, if you want to get in touch, send me a PM and I'll give you my e-mail or phone number. The west side of town is much more expensive than the east side (to buy houses, I mean), but if you like the mountains, you want to be on the west side. We're in Lakewood, right next to the foothills. It's a great location.
Marnie
