My mother is 96 years old, almost 97, has dementia, is in a wheel chair and lives in a skilled nursing facility. She is on Medi-Cal and Medicare. She is friendly but doesn't understand some things and can react by getting upset. She has had a bump on her chest for several weeks and the nursing home wasn't able to get a dermatologist, so her regular primary doctor gave me a referral to Dr Babapour.
Yesterday was my mom's appointment. I was not there, i was driving to a dental appointment when i got a call from Dr Babapour. He said he was with my mother and her attendant, and she seemed ok until he began taking the covering off of her lesion, and then she got upset, asking him if he was trying to kill her. This is not untypical for her when she doesn't understand something. He was very concerned and did not want her to have a frightening experience. He was able to look at the lesion and said it needed a biopsy. He suspected it was a skin cancer and he felt that it had been left untreated long enough. He said she needed a more advanced deeper biopsy than he was able to do in his office. He explained the procedure and told me what it was called. He asked if i would want a referral to another dermatologist he knew of who he said was able to do what my mom needed, which i did. I had no clue of what to do. He said he hoped she could get in for an appointment the next day but was doubtful on such short notice.
I was in the dentist office about to have my teeth cleaned when he called back. He said he was able to get my mom entered into the other dermatologist's system and it looked like there was an early morning appointment, and he urged me to call right away and confirm the appointment with that doctor's office. He had already explained to me in the earlier conversation what she would need if the biopsy showed cancer as he expected was likely, she would then need to have the tumor removed, and it would be best if both the biopsy (which is pretty time consuming and involved) and the removal of the cancer could be done at the same time so she wouldn't have to go through this kind of thing twice. He said that the doctor should be able to do both the biopsy and if necessary the excision at the same time.
So i did confirm the appointment and took care of all the paperwork when i got home. Apparently this short notice appointment was made to happen by Dr Babapour's intervention and contacting the other doctor. Dr Babapour called me last night, after office hours, to ask if i was able to get the appointment confirmed and necessary paperwork and everything. He was quite concerned and compassionate, seeing how my mom did not understand and felt threatened, and seeing that she needed the problem to be dealt with right away. Today the procedure was done, it was cancerous, exactly the kind Dr Babapour suspected, it was successfully treated and now is healing. He had asked me to call him today to tell him how it turned out and i did call his office and left him a message telling him it all went well and thanking him. I appreciate it. The other dermatologist's office was very good quality as Dr Babapour had described it.
I also had easy and supportive communication with Dr Babapour's office staff who helped with scheduling the appointment with him, Emee. i'm not sure of the spelling of the name but i think that's how it sounded. Very friendly and patient, encouraging and kind (the whole thing was quite stressful for me). read more
