I believe my kidney cancer discovery was miraculous, so I can happily write now about this from above the grass, rather than from under it. My father had lived successfully all his life having been born with just one kidney. Curious as to what I had inherited, I took the opportunity to join my wife in having an ultrasound when she was having one to ascertain the cause of some abdominal discomfort. They found that I, indeed, did have the normal two, but that one had a large mass in it. Since then, it’s been a special journey, not only about the miracle of having it accidentally found at a very early stage and successfully removed intact within one of the kidneys, but also to endorse the patronage of one of our area’s best, but relatively little known resources, Los Robles Medical Center, just over the hill, in Thousand Oaks. I had wonderful treatment there for kidney cancer, a type of cancer so rare that only 3% of cancer victims have it and, unfortunately, usually only know about it when they feel pain and then it’s often too late for effective correction.
Most importantly, and wrongly, Los Robles’ name is rarely suggested by local Malibu doctors as a viable emergency and/or routine healthcare facility. It seems, if anyone in Malibu asks their local family doctor about which hospital to use, they’re most often told to go to UCLA/St. John’s in Santa Monica. That’s probably convenient, and relatively close, if you live in southern Malibu, but, Malibu is 27 miles long!
From northern Malibu, where we live, including Broad Beach, Malibu Park, the Point, Zuma and all in Malibu points even further north, the soonest you might get to UCLA/St. Johns would be about 50 plus minutes to over an hour by ambulance and more by car, depending on the vagaries of PCH traffic, time of day/year, etc. However, to take Kanan Dume to Los Robles Hospital is only about 30 minutes away (also, with no PCH-like traffic to deal with)…much more convenient and, more importantly, a critical, life-saving time difference in many cases. They also have, both there and in their adjacent, professional services complex, an array of some of the best-trained, credentialed, highly respected, humanistic and compassionate specialists, who will see you very quickly, diagnose and treat you immediately and comprehensively, utilizing on-site all major testing facilities, blood panels, ultra-sound, CAT-scan, MRI, Angiogram, etc., all of which we’ve (as well as close Malibu friends) have used there these past couple of months for various reasons.
While currently having only about 200 beds (clean, modern rooms and equipment and the nicest, most competent staff, from CEO, doctors and nurses down to the cleaning crew) in semi-private rooms, they’re doubling their size very shortly, as well as having private rooms. Actually, I was fortunate enough to obtain a twin-bedded room with the other bed not used by a patient, so my wife, Joy, was able to stay over to also help me for three nights, sleeping in an adjoining bed. Since Joy was formerly head of events and fundraising for Los Angeles Childrens Hospital Foundation, as well as consultant and executive producer for the allied Children’s Miracle Network, she’s been involved with a myriad of well-known hospitals nationwide for over 15 years and is extremely impressed by Los Robles Hospital.
I believe the above basic information, as well as more details, is very important to share with your readers, since we think it’s imperative that this terrific resource is known about locally. However, there is one new problem that you should be aware of. When I returned there last week to get a bone scan (which is to become a baseline to check on any potential future cancer), they were chagrined to inform me that their contract with Blue Cross of CA had not yet been renewed, causing incredible problems among the myriad current patients they currently have, as well as potential new ones.
Considering their plans to double its size in the next year or so, this could be a real crisis for them, as well as those of us (who are covered by ubiquitous Blue Cross of CA) who value their wonderful, convenient services. The other hospital option we’ve been told about, (which is a little far away, but may still be closer than going south on sometimes overly crowded PCH to Santa Monica, if one lives up here), is St. Johns in Oxnard. We’ve been told that it is a modern (only a few years old) facility, with new equipment and very able doctors and staff. Maybe, we’ll check them out by having my bone scan done there, while awaiting Blue Cross and Los Robles Hospital to do their deal.
Larry Marshall