Scheduling all the doctors

I can only speak for my clinic but when I had the chemo, I only saw my gyn/oco. Then when I had the radiation I saw my gyn/onc one month and rads doc the next. I also have to see the hematologist every 6 months. I have had 2 recurrences since 2016, so I see the gyn/onco every 3 months and have a scan every 3 months. Your docs may all want to see you this time to see how you are doing, then they may rotate your care. Ask them about their routine.

As Donna Faye and Cindi have noted, different clinics have different protocols.

I had a post chemo appointment with the medical oncologist one month after treatment ended. He had ordered a CT scan after I concluded chemo, which we discussed at that appointment.

Then he released me back to the gynecological oncologist's care for all the follow-up exams. I did not see the radiation oncologist after I completed the 25 sessions of external pelvic radiation. But I had done radiation as a preventative measure, not in response to an identified spot of cancer. The gynecological oncologist did order another CT scan a couple of months after radiation and checked my CA125 at that time too.

I saw the gynecological oncologist every three months for the first two years after treatment. I'm now on a 4-month schedule for years three and four. I switch to 6 month exams in the 5^th year. We haven't discussed if I go back to a regular gynecologist after five years or stay with him for future exams.

I had another CT-scan a couple of years ago when I had one incident of bleeding and a CT-scan last year when I was having ongoing stomach aches. No sign of cancer on those scans. But my doctor doesn't routinely order scans – only when I report a problem.

And I don’t have the CA125 test on a regular basis. This has never seemed to be a cancer marker for me since I was only at 18 before surgery, although it dropped down to 9 and then 8 the couple of times it's been tested since treatment ended.

Congratulations on being done with treatment!

I think LisaPizza is right -- this shouldn't be your job to figure out, but your doctors' jobs. After chemo ended my doctors explained to me that they'd each see me every 3 months, with my medical oncologist being my main oncologist and my gyn oncologist being my specialist. Initially the appointments were happening at the same time, but I decided I'd rather spread them out, so I changed the schedule so that I essentially saw one of them every 1.5 months. I'm now on a 6-month schedule and see one of them every 3 months. My radiation oncologist stepped out of the picture after brachytherapy finished. My gyn onc schedules my bloodwork and PET scans and I see her one week after a scan has been done. My medical onc schedules bloodwork to be done when I arrive to see her. CA-125 hasn't been a good marker for me (it was at 8 when I was diagnosed, later hovered around 2 after treatment), so it's not regularly done anymore.

Do you have access to a patient portal? All my scheduling shows up there and I can use it to adjust scheduled appointments that conflict with business travel (back when there was business travel!), etc. I find it a helpful overview of what's coming in the next 6-12 months.

After my operation, I had a follow-up with the gyn/onc who did the operation.

She sent me to a radiologist/onc and after brachytherapy with him, I had only one follow-up appointment to check that everything had gone right and then it was back to the gyn/onc. I didn't have any chemo.

Gyn/onc had seen I had nodules on my lungs and a cyst liver and sent me to a pulmonologist for follow-up on the lung nodules and a gastroenterologist for the colonoscopy and cyst liver. Once that was done, I had one follow-up with each of these and results were sent back to gyn/onc. She also sent me for genetic testing and got those results and sent me to have mammographies and breast ultrasounds every 6 months.

I actually decided on my own to go to my regular gynecologist and I got yelled at by the gyn/onc for "excesive amount of doctors involved in the same thing." Apparently, the gynecologist sent a report to the gyn/onc about "changes in the look of vagina" although all the tests were normal, and the gyn/onc said that was the normal "look" of a vagina after radiation. She said I wouldn't need to go back to a regular gynecologist until five or so years have passed.

So, gyn/onc is my central doctor and she gave me referrals for mammographies and liver ultrasounds; she'll also order blood tests. I will go to the pulmonologist every six months for lung nodules, but that's all.

Your gyn/onc might take the lead since he/she was probably the one who ordered the chemo and radiation treatments?

Maxster, I so agree that you should not have to worry about the scheduling. Maybe the reason it works so smoothly for me is that all of my care has been within the same large academic health care system. My surgery and chemo was handled by the same wondeful gyn/onc, and he and the doctor who did the brachytherapy conferred once a week on all their joint patients.  I will be seeing my gyn/onc every three months for the first two years, then the same strecthed schedule others have described. Anything I have needed, such as acupuncture, CBCs, etc. was handled by referrals/orders from my gyn/onc, leaving me with nothing to do but respond when they called me to schedule. 

Congratulations on finishing!  If you've just finished and you're feeling weak or worn out, hang in there and it will get better week by week. I finished in mid January and my energy returned to normal a few weeks ago, for which I am so grateful. I'd gotten too weak to manage washing the dishes between the fifth and sixth cycle, so I was pleasantly surprised at how relatively quickly I was able to do ordinary things again.

Molly