Radiaion will not get it all

Buzzard said:

Two Words
Second Opinion......Its your choice in the route you take for your care , get another opinion, it will not hurt a thing, then if its different then get another, until you are ok with where your next step needs to be...Good Luck and God Bless you both.......

KathiM said:

I agree,
Second opinion. Since, as you mentioned, this decision (5.5) comes with consequences. Not that it's the wrong one, just you need to get more than one specialist to get on board.

I know, dearheart, all this makes you weary...but it IS necessary. I went to 5(!) second opinions on my breast cancer treatments that followed my rectal cancer. The last 3 I had to self-pay. I finally got my answer, and felt good about it.

Hugs, Kathi

CherylHutch said:

Opinions
Sue,

I wasn't sure if it was the same protocol in Alberta as it is in BC or not. But it sounds like it's very similar. My oncologist is my "primary" oncologist which means she will be with me through this whole journey and basically, she's my advocate, as well as my oncologist/chemotherapist. But, like your Center in Alberta, the BC Cancer Agency has "Case Conferences" where any oncologist can take their case(s) to a case conference which consists of other oncologists, radiologists, surgeons, and specialists and they all get copies of the case ahead of time, then they discuss the case and come up with the what they think is the best recommendations for a particular patient.

For example, when I had gone for a needle biopsy of the adrenal gland and we were waiting for the results, my oncologist had said that if it proved to be positive for cancer, she wasn't sure what our plan would be since it would mean the colon cancer had spread and if it's gone to the adrenal gland (which didn't make sense) then it's quite possible that it has spread to many other areas (we already knew it had spread to the lungs)... but this is not something we can decide now on a "What if..." basis because we'd really have to know what all we were looking at. Of course, I freaked out because to me that meant if it had spread, then I was going to die. That's all I could think of. It was the longest week in my life waiting to hear the results.

When the day came that I had an appt. to go over the results with her, I brought two friends with me. When Sharlene told me that the test came back positive, I went into shock and I think I momentarily left my body. I no longer was aware that my friends were in the room and I could hear Sharlene but I couldn't see her. She held my hands tightly and kept saying, "Cheryl, come back.. come back... we have a plan. I have to discuss this plan with you."

So somewhere in the back of my mind, the word "plan" sunk in, so I came back to awareness and whispered, "A plan?"

Yes, when the biopsy came back positive, she took my case to the Case Conference. They went over all the scans, the biopsy results, then the things to do with age, healthy, etc. Sharlene was my advocate and the group of them came up with the recommendation to go in and surgically remove the adrenal gland and then a surgery to surgically remove the 14mm tumour on the lung (at that time the tiny nodules weren't as much as a concern).

So, I've had the adrenal surgery and now we are dealing with the lung stuff. Since the tumour is still small and growing agonizingly slow, we have time now to come up with a plan for the small nodules which we aren't sure which ones are cancer, if any of them are. Hence, Sharlene is wanting a third opinion from this radiologist at a different hospital regarding ablating the small ones before doing the lung surgery on the larger one.

I am really happy with how they do this. I'm hearing with our American friends here, that it appears to get second or third opinions, either you have to find other specialists yourself... and then there's the whole procedure of having your insurance company approve this request. All of this does take time and it's not like every patient is physically in condition to be able to do all this running around and paperwork.

It sounds like the difference here is the primary oncologist here in Canada IS the patient's advocate as well as their oncologist/chemotherapist. So all the running around that would be done by the patient or caregiver, looking for second and third opinions is done by the patient's primary oncologist. As for insurance, I feel so much for our southern friends as I read the stories of the hassles some of you are experiencing... waiting for approvals, whether you can use the doctors you want to, etc. and then the worry when some of you know your insurance is running out.

I know a lot of my American friends have assumed that Canada has "socialized" health care, which is not true. There's a big difference between "socialized" health care and "subsidized" health care. We have subsidized, meaning the government does give each province a big whack of money to manage their provincial health care plans and each province has to throw in a whack of money, but each province manages their own insurance plan. As a citizen, every Canadian citizen is entitled to subsidized/affordable insurance. Most employers pay for the monthly premiums as an employee benefit, but for those who are self-employed and have to pay their own, the monthly premiums are $54/single person, $96/family of 2 and $108/family of 3 or more for any net income of over $28,000. If your net income is under $28,000, then the monthly premiums are less on a sliding scale... where very low incomers insurance premiums are covered.

That could be why there is this misunderstanding that Canada has socialized medicine because the "government" is involved... but their involvement has to do with money and subsidizing the provinces. The actual care... as a patient, you can go to any doctor/specialist you want... there are no lists of "approved for insurance" doctors. If you aren't comfortable with a doctor/specialist that you are seeing, you can change doctors and the new doctor will request your records from the previous doctor. You do not have to notify the insurance company that you've changed doctors... that's all done when the doctors do their billing (you don't need to fill out a kajillion forms)... although, you may have to sign a form here and there that you are aware of a procedure a doctor is billing for.

So, as far as second and third opinions go... 9 out of 10 times that is standard routine, but as a patient, if you feel you want an opinion from a different doctor that you pick... then you can do that as well.

So, Sue... I think you and your hubby are probably on the right track and he is getting good care. But if you are feeling at all uneasy, by all means, check with his oncologist and you can make some other enquiries if you feel like that would ease your mind.

Huggggggs,

Cheryl