I am about 2 months post reconstruction surgery and it was time for my oncologist appointment. Now I should be used to this but every three months I have to go to an oncologist appointment. During these appointments he checks the girls, and draws blood and that’s about it. I really dread going to these appointments because I am always worried about a recurrence.
The stress of recurrence is added on with the stress that I really don’t like my oncologist. This is the same oncologist that stressed me out so bad since the first appointment. During my first appointment he told me that they could treat me this time but when it came back they couldn’t. Now if you have read any of my previous entries you know that his comment caused me a great deal of stress and sleepless nights. He is also the same oncologist who tried telling me not to have the prophylactic bilateral mastectomies and reconstruction in the first place.
This oncologist has been giving me some grief since that first day and has basically disagreed with everything that I requested. Maybe he should realize that this is my body not his. Through all my research I found some test that I wanted done routinely to help catch a recurrence should it happen. I wanted a blood test for tumor markers, this test shows if there is an increase of a particular enzyme that tumors release, and this test is helpful in monitoring if the levels increase in the blood. I also wanted a bone scan to make sure there was no metastasis in my bones. I also wanted BRAC test, this shows if my tumor has genetic markers that would make my blood relatives at a higher risk of developing breast cancer or not. The BRAC test also shows if I am at a greater risk of uterine, ovarian cancer and a few other types of cancer. His logic behind not ordering this was that it was costly and I did not have biological children because we adopted. I do however have a mother, sister, nieces and nephews as well as cousins plus I do have a uterus and ovaries.
Since when do doctors think they are God’s? Who says they get to make all the decisions? Don’t they remember they are being paid by us?