68 yr Mom goes to emergency room 2 weeks ago. CT scan and colonoscopy reveal sigmoid colon cancer. Based on my research I believe there are MANY red flags that the care she has received so far is woefully inadequate. Pls let me know if you agree. This list just includes most recent concerns. There were many others.
I have so many concerns but my mom won’t listen to me. Any advice is appreciated
- Resection occurred one week ago. Pathology results due tomorrow
- she’s being treated exclusively by general surgeon. She had informal mtg w oncologist when she was in the emergency room after the colonoscopy.
- the general surgeon will deliver pathology results. Shouldn’t an oncologist be involved?
- pre-op she asked general surgeon how many lymph nodes would be removed. He said he’d know when he got in. Does this make sense? I thought # of lymph nodes removed was largely determined by clinical staging
- post op she asked how many lymph nodes were removed. He said he just scooped a bunch out.
- she has not been advised to set an appointment with an oncologist. Would put an oncologist be best to determine if the resectioning worked?
- post op surgeon said he saw no cancer spread during surgery when looking with the naked eye. Is his visual inspection relevant? Would any cancer specialist reassure a patient because he couldn’t “SEE” more cancer?
- as far as I can tell, no real clinical staging was performed. While she did have a CT scan and MRI it was done during emergency room stay and I’m not convinced they were specific to clinical staging after the colonoscopy. It was during a period when she was receiving a battery of tests to determine source of pain. They stated MRI was to look at an abnormal shadow on her femer. Full body CT scan performed before colonoscopy showed no evidence of liver or lungs problems
-She was told she would receive a pet scan after resectioning to see if it has spread. Why wouldn’t they want to know this prior to resectioning?