Great transition from Karolina to Dr. Link

A few weeks back we told you that Emily's NP was leaving Packard. The NP or Nurse Practitioner in the Packard Oncology clinic is really your main point of contact. They have a case load and manage patients and make sure the Oncologists have all the updated information so they can make their assessments quicker and more accurately. It's really the only way they can reasonably keep the costs of care down, and frankly each Oncologist is an extremely busy person. They are in clinic, operating rooms, researching in labs, and its a teaching hospital so they are training resident Oncologists for their careers.

So, we were worried when Karolina told us she was leaving. We knew her so well and had been through so much with her. I feel like she's on the team in a big way. And then suddenly she was gone. We were worried not that Dr. Link doesn't know what he is doing, he's very distinguished (Chief Pediatric Oncologist for Packard Hospital, Professor of Hematology and Oncology and Stanford Med School, he frequently is called to Washington DC to consult with medical care leaders, and is now the President of the Clinical Oncologist Society) His plate is full, plus he has a patient load, of course including Emily. We were worried he just doesn't have enough time for all of this.

Well, even though Karolina is great, Dr. Link is equally amazing. He responds to my emails within hours, not only with the answers to my questions, but also with supporting data and coaching for how to interpret the data. It's like he's taking the time to teach me rather than to just tell me what to do. Also I have found that if he says he'll follow up, he will. He's been extremely thorough. The past two nights he has emailed me with more information from a question I had two days ago.

Some of say we work 24/7, but seriously Dr. Link might honestly be able to make that claim. I sincerely hope that no one of you who reads this is ever going to need a pediatric oncologist, but if you do, you would have to consider Dr. Link, he's an amazing person.