Post surgery scan 6 months later

Texas_wedge said:

My surgeon is one of the top

Doesn't it make you feel sorry for so many patients who don't have the articulacy or knowledge to stand up to the medics, challenge statements and fight their own corner?  Even highly intelligent patients can be gulled into false security by cavalier or blasé statements - you really do have to be a bit street-wise to appreciate how the system works - and where, at times, it doesn't do a good job.

I think it helps a bit that I worked in a hospital environment for almost 8 years and heard the way some doctors talked and acted about their patients.  I will be much happier when I am seeing the oncologist on a regular basis.  When I have my next scan I am going to make sure they send ME a copy of the radiology report and I will have it in hand for my last visit with the close- mouthed surgeon!

DonMiller said:

Yo TillieSOK

Are you still under the care of your Urogist? I am being monitored now by my oncologist and feel alot better.  We are close to kidney cancer twins......I mean what are the odds?  I always thought I would have a heart attack or a stroke.  I admit I didn't even know what a kidney did on the day I got the thrilling news. No one in my family and it's a big family has ever had cancer of any kind.  

My oncologist cjanged my scan schedules.......going 6 months( but with a more extensive scan) instead of 4 but increased blood tests to every month.  His reasoning is that a scan is equiveant to 1600  X rays, two months dont matter that much and the contrast is hard on the kidney......even though it is presently doing fine. I know  physicians differ on these issues but I feel my oncologist is well.......A Doctor. 

 

Don

Yo, your own self, Don.  My surgeon want to see me one more time and he said he will schedule me for another CT scan before the appt., which will be in October.  The last scan, because of my blood work, they only gave me 1/2 contrast.  I am seeing my family doctor (whose office found the cancer) on the 15th of this month and I'm going to request that I be put under the care of Dr. Hart, the oncologist that I've seen once about a month after surgery. When he asked what kind of protocol had been set up for me, I said "nothing, except a chest X-ray at 6 months out".  I thought he was going to choke,( because he had a copy of the path report and the pre-surgery CT and MRI, and I had never seen those) and he said "I am going to write to your surgeon and to your family doctor and tell them what I, as an Oncologist, recommend.  CT/PET scans every three months for the first year, every 4 months for the second year, twice a year for the third year and once a year thereafter."  I couldn't figure out why, if the surgeon had "got it all" and I wasn't supposed to worry about anything, I needed all those tests.  Well, I read the path report and found out!  There is a HUGE difference between S1 G1 and S3a G2.  And yeah...we sure are kidney cancer twins!

i also have a Urologist that I trust who said he would be taking over my care in that aspect.  He also warned me that my surgeon was excellent and that while we needed his expertise, he was not the best 'conversationalist' in the world. I guess not! 

Trying to keep happy thoughts in my head today...it is my sister's birthday and the first one since she passed away from small cell lung cancer.  I wish she was here so I could talk to her about this.....