Warning, this is mostly a rant. Hopefully therapy for me just writing this out...
So I had a CT scan on Wednesday. I did it at a new facility in town which was great. They provide the results same day (even greater). Anyway, I picked up my report and the overall impression was "no specific evidence of recurrence" = all looked good to my untrained eye. I went over it in detail and there was a comment on the Chest CT results that states:
Bones: There is a small well-circumscribed lucency within the right facet joint best seen on image 89 of series 13. However there are no aggressive appearing lytic or blastic lesions.
So while the results sounds ok, there's something there that I don't understand. So here's where my pissed off-ness comes into play. I call my Oncologist, get his med tech on the phone and say, I got a CT, yada yada, can the doctor please explain this ONE thing to me. She tells me, oh the Nurse Practitioner ordered it, so Dr. Randolph can't review it (I call bullshit, but whatever) so I'll transfer you to her med tech. Ok, so I get voicemail, repeat the same story, I want to know about the bone comment, Dr. Google isn't my friend, my appointment isn't for 2 weeks, I can't wait that long, blah blah. I get a voicemail a couple hours later from a different nurse practitioner who says "I got your message, I'm with patients all day in the infusion center, and I can't answer your question anyway Dr. Randolph has to and you have an appointment in 2 weeks, so you'll have to wait." At this point, I am pissed. I want 1 answer, to 1 question "do I need to worry?". I call back, tell the receptionist my story again, she apologizes and says someone will call me by the end of the day. Of course, this doesn't happen. I call back today, get someone on the phone who says that my doctor did look at it and there's no recurrence. Of course I'm pissed again because I already know this I just want to know about the bone thing. After 15 minutes of her telling me that she's not a doctor and that unless there's something really wrong, I have to wait for my appointment, I got out of her that it's not something to worry about. But I still don't know what it is and I find it unacceptable that no one can call me and just tell me what it is. She had the nerve to tell me that my doctor "can't just drop everything and look at my CT", WTF, isn't that what he's there for?? My prior Oncologist would have called me in a heartbeat, but he retired not long after I finished treatment.
Sorry for the long rant, but I am just so mad. I feel a tad better just writing this.