Do you actually see your MD or are you always passed off to the PA?

HydrangeaBlue

I was dx with Breast Cancer in 2019. Mastectomy with removal of 19 lymph nodes, 4 were malignant. A suspicious mass was found on my kidney in 2019, delaying chemo. In 2020, after radiation was completed, the kidney mass was biopsied and then ablated. Kidney biopsies are not as "certain" as other biopsies - can be incorrect, one way or the other up to 20% of the time. Mine came back benign, but I was and am followed by Urology with CT scans every 6 months. At the 2.5 year mark out from ablation, I developed what might be a Renal Fat Necrosis in area ablated.

I was OK with seeing the PA for urology until this happened and I only saw the urologist ONE time in total, they day I was sent for evaluation. Also, I only saw my Oncologist a total of 3 times, 2 for the initial visit and results/diagnosis, and maybe at the 1st oncology infusion. Then I was passed off to the PA.

At the time, both specialties passed me off, and I didn't think much about it, but after the Renal Fat Necrosis possibility (or recurrence of a benign mass again or maybe the mass was malignant) looms large and I am no longer allowing a PA to see me for annual or semiannual visits. When I told the PA at our meeting yesterday she understood and set up my next visit to be wtih the MD. She said to me, 'You are already meeting with him once per year". Uh, NO I AM NOT! I told her. The ONE AND ONLY TIME I LAID EYES ON HIS was in 2019. Oh, she said. What I meant was that once per year we sit down and he reviews your chart with me. Well, I told her, that isn't enough and from now on I want to see him after any and every consequential/evaluation visit.

Is this just me, or is the common? I called Chemo and am trying to get them to set up my next appt (semiannual eval/review) with the Oncologist instead of the PA and have not heard back yet.

TIA