Life Interruption to the Left Please
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Irishwhispers
Member Posts: 96
Hi and hugs to all that are experiencing what I call my Life's Interruption. & I will apologize now for the length of this, however if it prevents one person going through what I did... then I've done my job.
On May 10th, 2008 I found a Life Interruption in my left breast, regardless to say , Mother's Day , and the first Anniversary for my live-in boyfriend and I ... so odd that we decided for each year we are together.. to buy a clock to represent our "Time" together.. Ironic??
Anyways ... from just reading what others have written here, I have actually begun to feel better about a lot of things...
I held off telling anyone other than my significant other until I had my Mammogram done, I didn't want to ruin anyones Mother's Day ... or throw the Alarm on something that may not be anything....
The News of the Damned... the very day after the Mammogram.. I was scheduled to meet with a surgeon... who may have been qualified but his Clerical staff was not!!!!!
That day May 21, 2008 the biopsy was performed in his office.
A week later I was receiving news No one wants to hear ...We discussed the options and plans of "attack"... It looked like I was a very good canidate for a Mammosite, if all the conditions were as believed.. a Lumpectomy and Sentinal Node Biopsy was scheduled 3 weeks later. Like I need to even say this... but, those 3 weeks were just Hell, minutes seemed to be an eternity and days ... were never ending...during that time I received notification from the Surgery Center for Pre-testing the week before I would have the surgery there. The same week I received that notice, I received one from my Surgeons Office stating to be at the local hospital for Pre-testing and Surgery..(Same days & times) of course this 2nd notice came on a weekend when no one was in the surgeons office, so I waited until Monday morning, called right away and asked the young woman that answered the phone, exactly where was I to go for the testing & surgery... she put me on hold and checked with the hospital.. I was to go to the Surgery Center.
ok, so, someone in his clerical office made a minor mistake I thought, as long as I know where to be.. no biggie,right???? Wrong!!!!
The morning of my "SCHEDULED" lumpectomy I am told that ..the Nuclear Medicine needed to inject me with ... had never been ordered & sent to the Surgery Center...keep in mind I had called to find out exactly where I was to have Surgery and was told the Surgery Center...
Immediately I was just appaulled that they even thought I was going to go back home and wait some more... Hahahahha!! They had a better chance at seeing god. I was not leaving until the procedure was performed and that I didnt care if they had to drive to the local Nuclear Power Plant and beg or borrow what they needed .. I WAS NOT LEAVING until What I was there for was completed !!!! ( Guess I have a bit of an Irish temper)
The medicine arrived a couple hours later and both procedures were done.
Later that evening at home I awoke with the most excrusiating pain I have ever felt in my life.( Little did I know how bad a Hematoma felt)bad enough to make me pass out completely as I was trying to make it back to my bed.
I survived that ordeal only to go back the following week to be told that the Margin needed to be expanded... I have some opinions on this too.. but I will leave that for later. So, I am scheduled for another surgery a week later... Oh Joy!!! By now it is June 30, 2008... this surgeon chose not to place the mammosite in until the second margin pathology report came back... some do some dont..
July 3 I am scheduled to meet with my Radiation Oncologist ... she has received my "Complete Medical Report" from my surgeon..( Thank God My brother was with me that day!!! he convinced me I could not drive to the surgeon's office and let all be known..)See, he never mentioned to my Radiation Oncologist that he felt I was a canidate for the Mammosite, there was not one word in my records regarding any type of recommended treatment.. I know this because I saw my records sent by him.!!!! With all of the conversations regarding the mammosite, the amount of radiation treatment was 5 days.. per the surgeon.. I do know it is the Radiation Oncologist & I who ultimately decide... but while my brother and I were sitting there listening to the Radiation Oncologist talk of 30 -36 treatments of radiation ... we both looked at her ..like What are you talking about!!!!! She then asked why we had such perplexed looks on our faces.. we explained what the surgeon had been talkin about, she was embarrassed needless to say , enough to the point of calling him while we waited in the examing room ... he blamed her! For not realizing it wasnt in my records!!!!
While she spoke to him she told him that if I was going to chose the Mammosite that she needed the "balloon" in place the next Monday ..he said he would set it up and call me.. this is the Thursday before 4th of July, I waited until 4:00 pm to hear from the surgeon, he didnt call and my Radiation Oncologist had already scheduled me for the breast scan the following tuesday which couldnt be done ..IF THE Mammosite wasnt in place!!!! Radiation was to start on Wednesday. So I called the surgeon's office got his operating room nurse, told her how disappointed, I was with the Clerical Staff there and that I had been waiting to hear when I ws scheduled for the mammosite she had no clue and had to scramble to schedule it..I could'nt believe any of this was happening ..bad enough you're told you have Cancer, then to have a Doctor's staff be so careless and incompetent.. I kept thinking what is this Fly by nite we dont really care if we get it right Cracker Jack Box Doctors!!!! I also told the nurse, I had been expecting the surgeon to call me and hadn't yet and it was 4:00Pm before a major Holiday.. he'd better call me or I would be on the phone to a local news station's Investigative News Reporter. He finally called at 8:00 PM .. asking me "what was up??????" As I began to tell him.. I stopped, and said YOU DAMN WELL KNOW WHAT'S UP!! That I felt he didnt care about his patients enough to keep a compentent Office Staff that when I met him that first day for the Biopsy his words were, He would take good care of me, to keep calm & Positive!!!!!!!! OMG!!!! I said you're office has done nothing but make me feel the opposite, his remarks to me were.. He cant control that, and that it was the Radiation Oncologist's fault she should have realized what wasnt in the file when she read it!!!.. He also said to me that it was my fault that I had waited 8 years since my last mammogram!!!!!!!!!! He had no idea what those 8 years where like for me.. and why it had been 8 years...
I hung up , feeling like this was a nightmare from beyond the depths of hell, I didnt want this man to ever touch me again but i didnt want to delay the radiation treatments. There was already 2 weeks passed since the 2nd surgery and that is the prime time to place the mammosite - any longer and there are issues with proper fitting ect... so I call my GP and asked her what should I do... I dont want to delay this any longer!!!!! But I dont want him to do the procedure I had to make a choice.. stop this whole thing and start searching for a new surgeon .. I couldnt wait and I had to follow through with this procedure ... and him doing it... surprisingly enough it was done without further problems and I met with my Radiatian Oncologist as scheduled and had the 5 sets of treatments of radiation , the mammosite removed, and met with my Oncologist, he scheduled a Bone scan and I have my 2nd appointment with him in the next week. He is scheduling the Onco Test.
Sorry for the rambling here. I just never expected the kinds of errors that took place to even exsist with something so life threatening. I am now composing a letter to his office , my Insurance company and the ACS as well as to all the doctors that I am now seeing. Maybe just maybe they wont let this happen to someone else.
On May 10th, 2008 I found a Life Interruption in my left breast, regardless to say , Mother's Day , and the first Anniversary for my live-in boyfriend and I ... so odd that we decided for each year we are together.. to buy a clock to represent our "Time" together.. Ironic??
Anyways ... from just reading what others have written here, I have actually begun to feel better about a lot of things...
I held off telling anyone other than my significant other until I had my Mammogram done, I didn't want to ruin anyones Mother's Day ... or throw the Alarm on something that may not be anything....
The News of the Damned... the very day after the Mammogram.. I was scheduled to meet with a surgeon... who may have been qualified but his Clerical staff was not!!!!!
That day May 21, 2008 the biopsy was performed in his office.
A week later I was receiving news No one wants to hear ...We discussed the options and plans of "attack"... It looked like I was a very good canidate for a Mammosite, if all the conditions were as believed.. a Lumpectomy and Sentinal Node Biopsy was scheduled 3 weeks later. Like I need to even say this... but, those 3 weeks were just Hell, minutes seemed to be an eternity and days ... were never ending...during that time I received notification from the Surgery Center for Pre-testing the week before I would have the surgery there. The same week I received that notice, I received one from my Surgeons Office stating to be at the local hospital for Pre-testing and Surgery..(Same days & times) of course this 2nd notice came on a weekend when no one was in the surgeons office, so I waited until Monday morning, called right away and asked the young woman that answered the phone, exactly where was I to go for the testing & surgery... she put me on hold and checked with the hospital.. I was to go to the Surgery Center.
ok, so, someone in his clerical office made a minor mistake I thought, as long as I know where to be.. no biggie,right???? Wrong!!!!
The morning of my "SCHEDULED" lumpectomy I am told that ..the Nuclear Medicine needed to inject me with ... had never been ordered & sent to the Surgery Center...keep in mind I had called to find out exactly where I was to have Surgery and was told the Surgery Center...
Immediately I was just appaulled that they even thought I was going to go back home and wait some more... Hahahahha!! They had a better chance at seeing god. I was not leaving until the procedure was performed and that I didnt care if they had to drive to the local Nuclear Power Plant and beg or borrow what they needed .. I WAS NOT LEAVING until What I was there for was completed !!!! ( Guess I have a bit of an Irish temper)
The medicine arrived a couple hours later and both procedures were done.
Later that evening at home I awoke with the most excrusiating pain I have ever felt in my life.( Little did I know how bad a Hematoma felt)bad enough to make me pass out completely as I was trying to make it back to my bed.
I survived that ordeal only to go back the following week to be told that the Margin needed to be expanded... I have some opinions on this too.. but I will leave that for later. So, I am scheduled for another surgery a week later... Oh Joy!!! By now it is June 30, 2008... this surgeon chose not to place the mammosite in until the second margin pathology report came back... some do some dont..
July 3 I am scheduled to meet with my Radiation Oncologist ... she has received my "Complete Medical Report" from my surgeon..( Thank God My brother was with me that day!!! he convinced me I could not drive to the surgeon's office and let all be known..)See, he never mentioned to my Radiation Oncologist that he felt I was a canidate for the Mammosite, there was not one word in my records regarding any type of recommended treatment.. I know this because I saw my records sent by him.!!!! With all of the conversations regarding the mammosite, the amount of radiation treatment was 5 days.. per the surgeon.. I do know it is the Radiation Oncologist & I who ultimately decide... but while my brother and I were sitting there listening to the Radiation Oncologist talk of 30 -36 treatments of radiation ... we both looked at her ..like What are you talking about!!!!! She then asked why we had such perplexed looks on our faces.. we explained what the surgeon had been talkin about, she was embarrassed needless to say , enough to the point of calling him while we waited in the examing room ... he blamed her! For not realizing it wasnt in my records!!!!
While she spoke to him she told him that if I was going to chose the Mammosite that she needed the "balloon" in place the next Monday ..he said he would set it up and call me.. this is the Thursday before 4th of July, I waited until 4:00 pm to hear from the surgeon, he didnt call and my Radiation Oncologist had already scheduled me for the breast scan the following tuesday which couldnt be done ..IF THE Mammosite wasnt in place!!!! Radiation was to start on Wednesday. So I called the surgeon's office got his operating room nurse, told her how disappointed, I was with the Clerical Staff there and that I had been waiting to hear when I ws scheduled for the mammosite she had no clue and had to scramble to schedule it..I could'nt believe any of this was happening ..bad enough you're told you have Cancer, then to have a Doctor's staff be so careless and incompetent.. I kept thinking what is this Fly by nite we dont really care if we get it right Cracker Jack Box Doctors!!!! I also told the nurse, I had been expecting the surgeon to call me and hadn't yet and it was 4:00Pm before a major Holiday.. he'd better call me or I would be on the phone to a local news station's Investigative News Reporter. He finally called at 8:00 PM .. asking me "what was up??????" As I began to tell him.. I stopped, and said YOU DAMN WELL KNOW WHAT'S UP!! That I felt he didnt care about his patients enough to keep a compentent Office Staff that when I met him that first day for the Biopsy his words were, He would take good care of me, to keep calm & Positive!!!!!!!! OMG!!!! I said you're office has done nothing but make me feel the opposite, his remarks to me were.. He cant control that, and that it was the Radiation Oncologist's fault she should have realized what wasnt in the file when she read it!!!.. He also said to me that it was my fault that I had waited 8 years since my last mammogram!!!!!!!!!! He had no idea what those 8 years where like for me.. and why it had been 8 years...
I hung up , feeling like this was a nightmare from beyond the depths of hell, I didnt want this man to ever touch me again but i didnt want to delay the radiation treatments. There was already 2 weeks passed since the 2nd surgery and that is the prime time to place the mammosite - any longer and there are issues with proper fitting ect... so I call my GP and asked her what should I do... I dont want to delay this any longer!!!!! But I dont want him to do the procedure I had to make a choice.. stop this whole thing and start searching for a new surgeon .. I couldnt wait and I had to follow through with this procedure ... and him doing it... surprisingly enough it was done without further problems and I met with my Radiatian Oncologist as scheduled and had the 5 sets of treatments of radiation , the mammosite removed, and met with my Oncologist, he scheduled a Bone scan and I have my 2nd appointment with him in the next week. He is scheduling the Onco Test.
Sorry for the rambling here. I just never expected the kinds of errors that took place to even exsist with something so life threatening. I am now composing a letter to his office , my Insurance company and the ACS as well as to all the doctors that I am now seeing. Maybe just maybe they wont let this happen to someone else.
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Comments
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First, let me say I'm really sorry that you have breast cancer and that to make matters worse, you had such a ROTTEN experience with your surgeon's office. ROTTEN is the word for it. But that being said, I'm glad that you were a candidate for mammosite and that you stuck to your guns throughout this horrendous ordeal. You've come to the right place to vent and let out all of that anger. I hope your Oncotype test goes well. It's takes about three weeks before you get the results - been there, done that. But, I do believe that the Oncotype test is worthwhile. It may save you from having chemo. Hang in there kiddo. Keep us posted on your progress. You sound like you have a great attitude to look at this "journey" as a life interuption. Nice way to look at it. P. S. Love your name "Irishwhipsers." Hugs, Marilynn0
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Hi Irish! It was nice to "meet" you in chat this morning~ you are wonderful! From your ongoing saga, I must say you reminded me of the old joke: Lost Dog, Deaf, Blind in one eye, has 3 legs, castrated, no teeth~ answers to the name "LUCKY"!
I am glad you found your way to the CSN site; hopefully this debacle will get straightened out soon, and you will be on the Life After Cancer side of things!
Keep us posted, will you?
Hugs,
Claudia0 -
Irishwhispers: I am sorry that you had such an ordeal with the doctors. I wrote on my web page for ACS, "surgery and radiation, a gentle breeze; the medical ocologist, a fierce hurricane." So I understand some of what you went through. It's been nearly impossible to find someone who had a lumptecomy and radiation. I talked with you in the chat room today. I hope we will have many more conversations. I wish you the best in your recovery. Judy0
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To all that I have met in Chat and those of you that have taken the "time" to read the novel I posted here... You are all Saints!! Good Luck and Positive Thoughts through all the Mud Puddles of Life!!jgharp said:Irishwhispers: I am sorry that you had such an ordeal with the doctors. I wrote on my web page for ACS, "surgery and radiation, a gentle breeze; the medical ocologist, a fierce hurricane." So I understand some of what you went through. It's been nearly impossible to find someone who had a lumptecomy and radiation. I talked with you in the chat room today. I hope we will have many more conversations. I wish you the best in your recovery. Judy
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