Jacques wrote:Beckster wrote:... Thanks for the info....No, he did not say anything about the Survivorship Care Team. All I know right now is that he said CT every 6 months for 2-3 years and bloodwork every 3 months.
Maybe he is waiting for my appt the end of June. I have a CT and bloodwork scheduled next week. If he doesn't say anything, I am going to ask.
The bloodwork next week is important because it represents the baseline for your 5:year surveillance program. For this reason, it makes sense to have a comprehensive blood test, including all of the major blood panels, plus certain key additional tests, even if you have to pay for some of these tests yourself.
Member rp1954 has written about this many times. Here are some examples of his posts on the value of having good, comprehensive baseline data to work with:
http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=55285&p=438646#p438646
http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52840&p=416346#p416346
http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50038&p=380871#p380871
My gastroenterologist sent me for presurgical bloodwork which included:
Alkaline Phosphatase, S, GGT, CEA, aPTT, ALT & AST, Basic Metabolic Panel (7), CBC/Diff Ambiguous Default, Chest Xray and CT with contrast (chest to pelvis.) This was all done before I saw the surgeon. All came back in normal range...
My oncologist orders CBC W/ DIFFERENTIAL and COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL every cycle during chemo. Now that chemo is finished, he ordered:
CBC W/ DIFFERENTIAL [LAB3498 Custom]
CEA [LAB57 Custom]
COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL
CT ABDOMEN AND PELVIS W IV AND PO CONTRAST
CT CHEST W CONTRAST
What is he missing? Is there anything I should additionally request? I have excellent coverage and it pays for everything.
Beckster