Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Cancer and the centers...


Let me be clear… there are a lot of people out there working
Cancer Centers, Doctors, nurses, aides who are great. Who
work day after day with great compassion for those in need.
And working with those who have a 50/50 chance of not making it, can be heartbreaking.. no matter how much objective you have. The nurses are not.. stones..

But.. with saying that… for the life of me.. I don’t understand
Cancer Centers.  The decisions that are made. The times they make the patient wait for not just hours but days or a week to get results from a cat scan or MRI, or any other test, it seems almost cruel.  Especially for those who seem to be at the end of their time.

I know there are some centers out there, who are better at
returning calls. But I have been close to a person who is fighting for her life. She is in her 7th round with chemo or more.. for the past 7 years. It really isn’t looking good at this point. There is something going on that she wants to know what it is. She had a scan done last Wednesday, and has not heard anything back from the doctor.  Doesn’t even have an appointment with the doctor because he only comes to our community one day a week. And it seems he is the only one who can tell her what  the results are.
That seems cruel to me.  I know she has in the past called for questions.. and was told a nurse will call her back. They didn’t. She has had to call up to 3 times, before someone talked to her.
Sad, very sad.

Of all the patients in the health system, I think cancer patients deserve quicker responses. Not only they are fighting for their lives, but worrying about the uncertainly of it all.. make it worse.


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