Need to vent

[Barry014]

Here's my situation. I've mentioned to my oncologist going back about a month that I was experiencing some left abdominal pain along with diarrhea. The diarrhea went away but I still had some occasional pain. He finally scheduled a ct scan which I had this past Tuesday. In the meantime I started experiencing some pain under my left armpit.

I've been getting weekly iron infusions for the past 6 weeks. This Friday I show up at the cancer center for my final iron infusion and I still don't have my results from the ct scan. The nurse always asks me if I have any pain before accessing my port and she also checks my weight and blood pressure. Well i bring up the fact that I just starting having some pain in my left armpit. I also mention my concerns about my wbc count getting progressively lower each week as well as my platelet count. Nurse says she'll let my oncologist know as he should check to see if my lymphnodes are swollen or at least have a practioner check it out(her words). She tells me if I don't receive a call for an appointment to call the nurse hotline at the cancer center which I do. I always get the voicemail so I leave a message. The hotline nurse calls me back late friday and says my ct scan results haven't been read. She says nothing about having my oncologist or practioner examine me.

The hotline nurse then asks if I want to set up an appointment with my oncologist this monday and I say I'll just wait for my ct scan results and proceed from there. Well today I get a call from my oncologist telling me that armpit pain has nothing to do with him, tells me I have a family doctor. Then proceeds to scold me about him being busy and that he's got other patients. That I shouldn't keep calling. Finally says that he'll let me know my ct scan results Monday. I can't tell you how mad I got after getting over the shock over that phone call.

To clarify somethings I have called the nurse hotline before. Once while I was on chemo and had a temperature of 101. It took 3 calls before anyone got back to me. I've also emailed my doctor through the hospital website which seemed the quickest way to contact him and to his credit he would always call back. Keep in mind I would always make an effort to keep things short and to the point. This was pertaining to medication he had prescribed me. It's not like I'm bothering him every week.

I should have my ct scan results monday. Needless to say I*ve lost all confidence in my oncologist.

My bloodwork from this Friday showed that both my wbc and platelet count had risen so while still low at least they're moving in the right direction.

[JJ2212]

Vent away. Your oncologist sounds like an ass.

Janie

[Delinda2]

Grrrrrrr! I'm mad that this happened to you. How can doctors be so insensitive? I would have done exactly the same thing that you did. Many of us have experienced the "see your own doctor" response to a perfectly reasonable question. Any doctor who scolds me like a child & uses the "I'm a busy man." line is not my kind of doc. You could begin shopping around for an oncologist who's a better fit, but in the meanwhile you need this dolt. You might want to mention to him that you are not a doctor & don't know what should be run by him first. There is a way to tell a patient that their problem is not cancer related & should be dealt with by a different doc without being arrogant and rude. I switched doctors & am very glad I did.
Oddly enough, I had a similar problem very recently. Called because I was having increasingly severe pain in my abdomen. My onc had been speaking at conferences & his PA told me to see my family doctor. Fortunately, when my onc heard this he kicked things into high gear, got a CT the next day, etc.
Sometimes doctors, nurses, office staff, need to be reminded that this is new and frightening to us - even if it's old hat to them. Set boundaries & clear expectations avoid a lot of stress for everyone concerned. Good luck & let us know if you work things out with this doc or decide to find a new one. Take care. XXOXO, Delinda

[justin case]

I haven't seen any doctor but my oncologist since I was diagnosed, excluding my surgeon , and radiation oncologist. Once you are an oncology patient, the oncologist is supposed to call all shots. I get my BP meds, from my oncologist, I haven't seen a GP in 3 1/2 years.
Justin

[peanut_8]

I'm not a doctor, Barry, butt from a lay-person's viewpoint, I don't think you were out of line at all. It seems to me that there are lymph nodes in your armpit, and you could be justifiably concerned that they could indicate a spread of cancer. Doctors can be jerks sometimes. GRRR
peanut

[ANDRETEXAS]

That onc is an ass ! BTW, my ct scans are usually read 1-2 hours after I have the scan. I have called where I had the CT scan and picked up the results the following day before the onc tells me. I don't like waiting.

[Barry014]

I'm on medicaid so it's not like I have a lot of options. If something does show up on the scans I don't want to be at war with my oncologist. I just pray there's no recurrence. On my last 2 scans I had the results the next day. My family doctor is great but he's not an oncologist. He's a real friendly guy and answers all my questions. In fairness to my oncologist, he's been pretty good up to this point. I have no idea what the nurses said to him but perhaps that had something to do with his attitude. One thing I don't need is the added stress. My blood pressure was way up on Friday whereas previously it was in the normal range.

[lauragb]

Barry, you don't have to wait for your doctor to see your scan results. Some people like to wait but I prefer to pick mine up from Medical Records before appointments so I can have questions ready. Good luck and I hope your results are fine.

[Barry014]

Barry, you don't have to wait for your doctor to see your scan results. Some people like to wait but I prefer to pick mine up from Medical Records before appointments so I can have questions ready. Good luck and I hope your results are fine.

They have to be read first, otherwise they're just pictures without explanations. My oncologist usually gives me the results over the phone if it's clear and I imagine if something shows up he'll set up an office appointment. I can usually access the results online a few days later wih the detailed readings.