Veronica Tompkins

For the past 8 years I’ve struggled with bladder cancer even though I don’t fit the risk profile. So its been quite a complication for doctors and ive had several reoccurrences. Seven to eight surgeries, minor TURPS but I also had to have my kidney removed due to the disease. And last May it came to the point where I had high grade cells and my oncologist highly recommended that I have my bladder removed. It was a t that point that I had to find a specialist surgeon and really didn’t know where to go.

I found Scott by going online to the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, BCAN. To their online community and asking for recommendations. And I was amazed that two people immediately gave me the same name Scott Miller. On top of that people from around the country had heard about Scott Miller from those two individuals and others. Again, I was getting recommendations for Scott from Arizona from Boston. How amazing is that ? When I was speaking to the women that recommended Dr. Miller, the women from Florida, I was amazed that she told me that when Scott and his family were on vacation in Florida they actually called her up and visited with her.  What kind of Doctor does that? You just don’t hear about that these days. After meeting with him it was clear,  I am so thrilled that I chose Dr. Miller to do my radical cystectomy this past summer. I also have to kind of give some kudos to his staff because not only anytime any insurance hiccup came they took care of everything. But also they visited me in the hospital that’s unheard of.

The day after surgery I was in ICU and something pretty extraordinary happened. My husband and Scott were sitting off to the side in a quiet conversation and the nurse came in and said to me “ When your doctor gets here I’m going to tell him…” And I had to stop her and point out that Dr. Miller was in the room. And she was surprised she said “ Well I thought he was a friend” And Dr. Miller without missing a beat said “ I am” So that goes to tell you the kind of experience you have when Scott’s your surgeon. I think that one of the best decisions that I’ve made was to choose a robotic procedure. Being forty seven and having three kids at home. It was really important to me to go back to my active lifestyle. I was amazed that I had my surgery on a Wednesday on Saturday I was standing up  washing my hair over sink basin and I was home on Tuesday. I was visiting my kids at their different summer camps that week. Going with them to get their school supplies and within a couple of weeks driving them to school. That’s amazing that you could have such a major surgery, having your bladder and uterus removed  and within days I was walking and within days I was back to caring for myself. Of course I couldn’t exercise right away, 4 weeks later I could. That’s amazing too, you just don’t hear that with typical invasive full incision surgery. And I have nothing to say bad about the robotic surgery. I have five small incisions. I feel wonderful a few months later and I was right back to my active lifestyle. Whether I was in pre-op, post-op the duty nurses anyone who heard that I was under the care of Scott Miller, just kept telling me over and over that I was in good hands. The Stoma nurse even said that I had a “textbook stoma“. “Who did your work” and when I said “Scott Miller” she said “I knew it”.

It just goes as a testimony to him, not to only his skill sets but the way the nurses and the staff talked about him, about who he is as a person. He’s compassionate and caring and it’s the full package when your looking for a great physician.