To Cancer Professionals: Know What It's Really Like
I really wish people working with cancer patients will read this note. I may stop some or all treatments soon...
Oblivious doctors
No one can know what it is like to get that 10PM call saying you have an advanced cancer (Stage 4A), and that it is so rare no one on your medical team has ever seen a case. Even though you had digital exams for 18 years and PSA tests for eight. When you are told you need surgery ASAP then told you have to wait 10 weeks for an opening. What it is like when a doctor looks up VERY BASIC information on her iPhone during your first meeting and says, "Oh, I should have known that." What it is like when you have to provide literature articles on this rare cancer to your doctors to help guide your treatments and then beg them to look at it. When they use that information to change your treatment plan and you wonder why your life depends on you doing these searches.
Bad to worse
When your CT scan report leaves out the words “No” and “Not”, which then indicated that the treatments did not work and you go from being just screwed to really screwed, then to find out you are just screwed after all when they find their mistake. Of course they charge you $60 dollars to correct their error in the report. Or when the hospital does a scan that they checked with the insurance company before hand for coverage then find out that they forgot to call them for prior approval and you are responsible for a $11,500 bill. When you are stuck with this hospital due to insurance coverage. Unfortunately this list goes on...
Having advanced cancer is bad enough.
The actions of the hospital can make it so much worse. Cancer patients have enough to deal with without fighting the "establishment." I am considering saying “enough!” and end all treatments.
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