The 7 treatments actually take 3 weeks to receive. The 7 treatment or exposures are done every other day (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) so one needs to arrive in Essen by Sunday and be diagnosed by the professor and scheduled in for treatment, which may not necessarily be started the same day. You need to stay in the area for at least two weekends during the treatment period, so best case you would be in Essen for 17 nights, and more likely for 19 nights. This is something that is not explained until you arrive in Essen at which time it may be difficult to alter your hotel and travel arrangements. I made arrangements and corresponded with Dr. Seegenschmiedt's secretary and then learned after I arrived and meet with the professor that I only had time in 2 weeks to get the 5 day series and would have to make a second trip to Germany from California and spend an additional 6-7 days there.

With the 5-day treatment (done twice) you get an exposure every day for the course of a week so it is possible to get your diagnosis confirmed and a treatment plan and treatment area done on Monday and be done by Friday. The treatment area is an important aspect of the diagnosis and XRT. Professor Dr. Seegenschmiedt found through palpation a much more extensive area needing treatment on the hand with less contracture than had been assessed 40 days earlier by Dr. Denkler who performed a NA on both my hands.

I believe that if the XRT is largely to prevent the worsening of my condition it was actually more important to treat the less affected hand. I would not recommend have XRT on just one hand (or foot). Had I received the XRT in the USA I doubt they would have accurately determined the area to be treated based on my experience.

The equipment used in Essen was an older technology but a machine that requires less precision in its use. I received my second series of treatments at the University of San Francisco Medical Center, which is a teaching hospital and therefore both receptive to new approaches to treatment and much less inclined to hide behind concerns of possible malpractice claims. The used a linear accelerator device for the XRT and I need to also pay for a scan so that Dr. Penny Snead could be sure of the settings to use. Dr. Snead and her entire staff were a real pleasure to be around and very supportive as was Dr. Seegenschmiedt's people in Essen - very atypical of the medical care I have received in the USA overall in my 50+ years.

In terms of cost, I had both hands treated for 5 days and was billed about 800 Euros ($1200) in total. The second round of 5 treatments was done in California and the amount billed was over $8000. Interesting in that I was treated as a alien visitor in Germany for so much less than as a resident of California by a state funded medical hospital. So you can probably guess my take on whether the United States should have nationalized health care like the rest of the civilized world.

Bruce

Hi arogers,

I'm so glad you got in touch with Dr. Kuhn! That must have been the same day that I called to schedule my radiation with her...I was telling the receptionist that I was really glad I could get the radiation treatment in the US and I asked her whether they get a lot of people there from out of state, and she said she'd just been on the phone with a guy from Atlanta. Funny! Best of luck to you getting this to work for you in Atlanta.

Megan

Edited at 07/22/08 07:38