Ontario Canada Members

Chelsea71
Chelsea71 Member Posts: 1,169 Member
in Colorectal Cancer #1
I am not sure how many people are from Ontario. It may be that it is only Maggie and I. Anyways, my husband, Steve, is having a hard time getting a scan. He has had a recurrence of liver mets. He is on session 6 of Folfiri with Avastin. Scheduled to meet the liver surgeon on Jan 8. His onc at the Ottawa Cancer Clinic said she wanted to do a scan Dec 3 or 4. (first once since starting this round of chemo). No phone call came. Dec 3, we call the hospital. They explain that Steve is on a low priority list and, therefore, the ct scan will likely be scheduled for 2 months time. At the next app with the onc. (Dec.11) she explained that that was a mistake and that she had corrected the info in the computer system. She said that if they had not called by Monday with an app. to please call her office. We ended up having to call her office. Still no scan app. We are concerned that there will be no scan to show the liver surgeon. Have any other Ontario residents been having similar problems? I find the province to be stingy with scans. Will not do pet only ct.

Maggie - Do you get pet scans in your area? I realize you are not yet due for another scan, but have you heard of others having difficulties getting tests? We did not have this problem last year when Steve was on chemo. He had Hipec in Quebec. They are very quick to do scans. They prefer pet to ct. In fact Steve has an app. For a Montreal scan coming up in early Jan. (they like to monitor his progress). It seems wrong to me that he has an easier time getting an out of province test. We are getting frustrated. Anxious to know if the chemo is being effective.

Thanks,

Chelsea

Comments

  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #2
    scans
    Hi....oh no I have never had a moment's trouble getting a ct scan. In fact i have had so many my onc is alternating ct scan with abdominal ultrasound ....we switch these around and I get one every 6 months.
    I have had one pet scan and I had to go to Toronto and i had to pay for it .....$1000. My liver surgeon uses only the ct scan.....I was part of a pet scan study about 4 years ago to see if the pet had any significant difference to patients with mets to the liver.....i have never had another pet

    good luck to you and stay in touch

    maggie
  • Chelsea71
    Chelsea71 Member Posts: 1,169 Member
    #3
    maglets said:

    scans
    Hi....oh no I have never had a moment's trouble getting a ct scan. In fact i have had so many my onc is alternating ct scan with abdominal ultrasound ....we switch these around and I get one every 6 months.
    I have had one pet scan and I had to go to Toronto and i had to pay for it .....$1000. My liver surgeon uses only the ct scan.....I was part of a pet scan study about 4 years ago to see if the pet had any significant difference to patients with mets to the liver.....i have never had another pet

    good luck to you and stay in touch

    maggie

    $1000..00! Wow, that's a
    $1000..00! Wow, that's a deal. We paid $2500.00 to have a pet in Gatineau. OHIP wouldn't cover it. Well, I'm happy to hear that you haven't had any trouble. I think it might be time to become a bit more aggressive. I will start calling the hospital on a daily basis until we get a date. It is unfortunate that I have to go to such lengths. Like there's not enough already to do one week before Christmas! Thanks for your response.

    Merry Christmas

    Chelsea
  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #4
    Chelsea71 said:

    $1000..00! Wow, that's a
    $1000..00! Wow, that's a deal. We paid $2500.00 to have a pet in Gatineau. OHIP wouldn't cover it. Well, I'm happy to hear that you haven't had any trouble. I think it might be time to become a bit more aggressive. I will start calling the hospital on a daily basis until we get a date. It is unfortunate that I have to go to such lengths. Like there's not enough already to do one week before Christmas! Thanks for your response.

    Merry Christmas

    Chelsea

    hi chelsea
    no probs.....is there anyway a different hospital could be used....i can usually get a ct within a week.

    re the cost of the pet...when i phoned the clinic (it was a private place) the director said $2500. I hung up and about an hour later I phoned back and said I did not feel I could financially handle that and i wished to cancel. He immediately gave the 1000 price and said he had private benefactors who supported those who could not afford....so i said yes

    but you know I felt creepy about the whole thing.....so used to universal care that it did not sit well with me....

    good luck hon

    mags
  • very worried husband
    very worried husband Member Posts: 88
    #5
    CT
    Hi Chelsea,

    So sorry to hear about the trouble. My wife had only one scan, and we did not find it hard to get in , and yes, We are in Toronto area. Although, I did hear that it cost about CAD 2500/- if you have no insurance. But OHIP covered it for my wife.
  • Chelsea71
    Chelsea71 Member Posts: 1,169 Member
    #6
    very worried husband said:

    CT
    Hi Chelsea,

    So sorry to hear about the trouble. My wife had only one scan, and we did not find it hard to get in , and yes, We are in Toronto area. Although, I did hear that it cost about CAD 2500/- if you have no insurance. But OHIP covered it for my wife.

    Thanks for your response.
    Thanks for your response. It' very odd. We did not have this problem last year when Steve was on chemo. I get the sense that the hospital is struggling financially. I over-heard nurses talking about lay-offs etc... I know they've implemented some changes for cost cutting purposes, but I'd hate to think they're skimping on the scans. It seems to be the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, so I will get on the phone tomorrow and start pestering people. It would be nice to switch to another hospital but we would have to go to Toronto. That's a four hour drive for us. Nice that you and your wife aren't experiencing any problems. Perhaps I'm being too fussy. I may be just looking for reasons to pick on poor Dalton. LOL

    Chelsea
  • smokeyjoe
    smokeyjoe Member Posts: 1,425 Member
    #7
    Chelsea71 said:

    Thanks for your response.
    Thanks for your response. It' very odd. We did not have this problem last year when Steve was on chemo. I get the sense that the hospital is struggling financially. I over-heard nurses talking about lay-offs etc... I know they've implemented some changes for cost cutting purposes, but I'd hate to think they're skimping on the scans. It seems to be the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, so I will get on the phone tomorrow and start pestering people. It would be nice to switch to another hospital but we would have to go to Toronto. That's a four hour drive for us. Nice that you and your wife aren't experiencing any problems. Perhaps I'm being too fussy. I may be just looking for reasons to pick on poor Dalton. LOL

    Chelsea

    I haven't had an issue
    I haven't had an issue getting CT scans every three months. Oncologist schedules them. I brought up about PET scan about a year and a half ago....oncologist carried on about the exposure to radioactive die they use etc. etc. and said wasn't a good idea.....but I doubt he could get me in to a PET scan if he wanted to. So we go with the CT's. Maybe if your centre is really booked you could get in at another hospital outside your area. OHIP should cover it no matter which hospital you go to in Ontario. My son needed a scan done of his knee, and it was scheduled for months and months away....I would call in to the hospital every morning to see if there were any cancellations....and I mean every morning....and got in there much sooner. I'd try that.
  • Chelsea71
    Chelsea71 Member Posts: 1,169 Member
    #8
    smokeyjoe said:

    I haven't had an issue
    I haven't had an issue getting CT scans every three months. Oncologist schedules them. I brought up about PET scan about a year and a half ago....oncologist carried on about the exposure to radioactive die they use etc. etc. and said wasn't a good idea.....but I doubt he could get me in to a PET scan if he wanted to. So we go with the CT's. Maybe if your centre is really booked you could get in at another hospital outside your area. OHIP should cover it no matter which hospital you go to in Ontario. My son needed a scan done of his knee, and it was scheduled for months and months away....I would call in to the hospital every morning to see if there were any cancellations....and I mean every morning....and got in there much sooner. I'd try that.

    Having cancer definitely
    Having cancer definitely gets you tests quickly in Ontario. But if you don't have cancer or a life threatening illness it takes months. It's ridiculous. We do have a scan scheduled in Montreal for Jan 7 (hipec follow-up). Each hospital seems to want their own scan. It would be nice to be able to show something to the liver surgeon on Jan 8.

    What your onc. said about the die is likely b.s. Steve's onc said that OHIP doesn't feel that pets are necessary for colon cancer. Won't cover them. I guess they've never hear of bone and brain mets. We were actually quite impressed with Quebec. Many differences. When Steve was at Maisonneuve Rosemont for HIPEC, we couldn't get over the nurse patient ratio. Much lower compared when he was hospitalized in Ottawa. Although none of them spoke English! We had to play charades with them for two weeks. They were very nice though.

    Thanks for your response and have a Merry Christmas.

    Chelsea
  • smokeyjoe
    smokeyjoe Member Posts: 1,425 Member
    #9
    Chelsea71 said:

    Having cancer definitely
    Having cancer definitely gets you tests quickly in Ontario. But if you don't have cancer or a life threatening illness it takes months. It's ridiculous. We do have a scan scheduled in Montreal for Jan 7 (hipec follow-up). Each hospital seems to want their own scan. It would be nice to be able to show something to the liver surgeon on Jan 8.

    What your onc. said about the die is likely b.s. Steve's onc said that OHIP doesn't feel that pets are necessary for colon cancer. Won't cover them. I guess they've never hear of bone and brain mets. We were actually quite impressed with Quebec. Many differences. When Steve was at Maisonneuve Rosemont for HIPEC, we couldn't get over the nurse patient ratio. Much lower compared when he was hospitalized in Ottawa. Although none of them spoke English! We had to play charades with them for two weeks. They were very nice though.

    Thanks for your response and have a Merry Christmas.

    Chelsea

    Just wondering if the liver
    Just wondering if the liver surgeon could book a scan earlier for this appointment so he has an up to date baseline scan of what's going on?
  • Chelsea71
    Chelsea71 Member Posts: 1,169 Member
    #10
    smokeyjoe said:

    Just wondering if the liver
    Just wondering if the liver surgeon could book a scan earlier for this appointment so he has an up to date baseline scan of what's going on?

    I didn't think of that. The
    I didn't think of that. The liver surgeon likely has more pull than the oncologist. I will call his office tomorrow am.

    Thanks and Merry Christmas,

    Chelsea

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