Anyone Else Facing Treatment Obstacles Due to Coronavirus? Stephenson Cancer Center Would Not See Me

I am amazed that the place you had your cancer would actually send you a certified letter nonetheless terminating any relationship you had with them. You called with justifiable concerns as far as I can see and we as cancer patients need proper follow up so as if our cancer is returning or metastasizing we want to know as soon as possible to get it treated again when it is as small as possible. And as far as you coming to get your records I think they should send them to you since they are the ones terminating the relationship not you picking them up. It seems the nurse manager did not like you questioning their protocol in the Covid-19 situation and somehow went to the point of terminating a patient relationship. It seems out of whack unless you were really hard on them to do that to a patient. And one more thing I think they should be a little more tolerant to patients because cancer can be a very emotional and life-changing experience as we on this forum very well know. I would say call your main care team and ask for a supervisor and ask and discuss the termination because after all, you wanted to get follow-ups and continuing care there. I would try to talk to someone calmly and smooth this out and find out what happened as it seems a little extreme. I also say give the medical folks a bit of leeway also as I am sure emotions and fears are running high in the medical community nowadays. Lastly, I agree I don't think when it comes to cancer follow-ups that it can be covered properly by a video call usually but don't get me wrong I am sure some follow-ups could be done that way depending on the situation.

I myself have been affected by this Covid-19 situation. After recently going through my third bout with cancer I was to have my feeding tube removed April 7, 2020. I received a call about a week previous to that to tell me regional GI was canceling all non-emergency appointments and my appointment to have my feeding tube was canceled and as soon as they start regular scheduling again they will call me and set up an appointment. Also, I have granulated tissue under my feeding tube base and went to wound care about a month before the scheduled feeding tube removal and the granulation was treated with Silver Nitrate and I was given a prescription of Mesalt patches to put on it to continue to reduce it as it is very sensitive, painful if rubbed too hard while cleaning and bleeds very easily. I hoped this would make the removal less painful. Afterwhile in the meantime, the area seems aggravated so I quit the Mesalt patches for awhile. Any way since appointment canceled the granulation has not gone away and I contacted the wound center for advice since I don't know when I will get this thing out. So what happened was they requested I send them a picture of my feeding tube area through my health account and I installed an app on my phone and had a video conference with my wound physician and we discussed it and it was recommended I continue with the Mesalt patches till the feeding tube comes out, that is how the Covid-19 affected me and my situation-Take Care-God Bless.

This is just a short follow up. One more thing was I was supposed to do follow up swallow exercise training with the speech therapist. Although I can swallow and am eating well the process is certainly not as fast as pre-cancer. My eating and swallowing is a much slower process but no problem I am just glad I can eat. I have to chew much more. The speech therapist was there for my swallow test and said that she sees room for improvement with swallowing exercises. But due to Covid-19, they are not seeing patients for this but she feels they will probably start again sometime in June. I could have a video appointment with her but I am going to wait till I can get a regular appointment.

One thing I am scheduled locally for is a CAT scan with dye for my 3 months follow up after radiation on the 26th of this month so that should be interesting to see what protocol I will have to go through to get that done.

So everyone take care, be safe, Take Care-God Bless

I just had a lower back & pelvis CT this past Friday, without any hassles, at one of the 6 Hospitals in my Metro area, Russ. Because of my FT I could not do the Barium drink- had to mix a liquid with 37% Iodine and water to pour into FT 2 hours before. Then the Nurse shot the dye in me when on the table. 2 PM, and there were very few people to be seen. 

My biggest complaint? Between laying down on the table with my head on a pillow for the time, and getting up= messed up my combover!

Logan51 said:

Russ

Thanks for correcting my spelling on my hair condition/situation! The dash mark is sometimes used, but combining both words is not done. 

Is because I am using a program called Grammarly. It is free unless you want to buy a more advanced version. It shows you what needs to be corrected. Check it out I really like it and it works on other web sites and emails, etc. I think ProustLover put me wise to it-Take Care-God Bless

While I have active cancer now they found it from my regular check up.  There must be something else going on as where I live if you need cancer check ups they are doing them in person.