Wednesday, March 7, 2012

I'm sorry MY cancer makes YOU uncomfortable....

Really?  And I'm trying hard not to be a bitch about this-or throw the "I'm the one with cancer" line out there.  But this is getting downright ridiculous!

Told to call office on Tuesday and ask for Dr Failing's nurse for her to give me Pathology results. 
OK-call on Tuesday-no results. 

Call today and yes-prelim and final results are back.  But she will have to check with one of the other doctors in the group before she can read them to me.  Fine-here's my call back number.

She calls back and here's what I get:

Left side breast is completely negative

Right side breast found an additional tumor of .6 cm in size

Two of fourteen lymph nodes were positive.

Then she stops. 
So I say-ok, I knew about the lymph nodes-he told me after surgery that on touch prep two of the three they tested were already positive. 
I swear she let out a sigh of relief.  Ok-I get that-she didn't want to tell me about something I didn't already know-but then again-isn't that her job-or would Dr Failing have made sure I spoke to a Dr instead of a nurse???
Then I ask about what stage it was.
And she answers with
" Well, that's not something I'm comfortable telling you".
REALLY?  YOU aren't comfortable telling me about MY CANCER????
Immediately I'm consoling her!  I feel bad for her. Poor nurse.
So she thanks me and tells me I will find everything out in detail NEXT WEDNESDAY at my follow up appointment with Dr Failing. 

Now all the secrecy leads me to believe that the results are bad, and if they aren't-how am I supposed to think otherwise at this point???

Well, I sure hope Nicki the Nurse can at least feel comfortable and get some sleep for the next week......not sure I will.

3 comments:

  1. Kari -- That is horrible. A friend of mine had a similar story when she was told by the nurse that she had cancer, then wait she didn't, oh ya, she does... she did and she's fine now. I don't think that they are always trained on how to convey news, and she probably doesn't know that you already know most of the scoop. Only two nodes out of all of them is very good news. Your kind is treatable and you will beat it. Take a deep breath, and if you can't, call them back and make the doctor call you back. If you're at the right place, they will. Joely

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  2. That is insane!!! They have to know how crazy this must be making you! I had a similar experience after a follow-up exploratory surgery and they told me at the hospital that I would be able to review the results with the NP, but then called the next day and left a message saying the Dr. would like to meet with me to go over the results ASAP..... *yikes! But when I called to schedule, they couldn't get me in for 2 weeks, so I was beside myself wondering why the doctor not the nurse, but then why is it ok to wait 2 weeks when they said ASAP! It all turned out to be just a new medication that they wanted me on.... well thanks for freaking me out!

    Anyway, sorry for the rant, I know what you're going through is far, far worse! And I will hope and pray for the best outcome for you!

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  3. I am so sorry you are having to go thru this mess Kari. You are definitely helping others by letting us all know that this office/Dr. are not the best at communicating. He should not have left town without STRICT instructions to his staff and another on call Dr. for you. I probably would have just gone back to the ER and mailed him the bill to just prove him how bad you have had it. You have cancer, you don't need to be messing with this kind of crap!!! I am livid just reading what you are going thru so I can only imagine how you feel. I know it won't be easy but try and not focus on the negative, you have done so great at being positive thru this whole thing so don't let that Dr's office take you down!!! Prayers still coming your way and I'm glad you all are at home together. Love ya!!

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