Post Treatment Care

On Tuesday of this week I was told by my Dentist that I needed a tooth extracted. According to my Oncologist if I were to be put in the position to having a tooth extracted I need to have him arrange for a specialist to do this because I have undergone Chemo and Radiation treatment. I reminded my Dentist that I needed to do this and when I got home I called my Oncologist's office to make arrangements. I also asked to speak to him. Well, of course he was much to busy to speak to me at that time, but of course the information would be relayed to him and they would be in touch with me. It was the next day when I got a return call from his office and was told I needed to call a dental care office some 120 miles from where I live to make arrangements, or have my Dentist call them. Well, I am relatively certain that they would have had to contact my Dentist if I had called, so I had my dentist call them. However, during this short non-personal conversation with my Oncologist's receptionist/secretary I was told he didn't call me back himself because he was 'so busy' this week having been on vacation last week. What?? I think I would have lied rather than told a cancer patient the reason his/her physician couldn't take the time to speak to them on the phone was they had been on vacation. When I said I had a problem getting to Roanoke, some 120 miles from where I live, she responded "A lot of our patients have social issues". I didn't realize my possible inability to get to the office they wanted me referred to was a 'social issue', but I am certainly glad to know that now. My problem with all this is: April will be the 6th anniversary of my being under this particular Oncologist's care. In that time I have called and asked questions, for example, after 5 weeks of radiation treatment to my throat I finally called and asked if I could get something for pain. I was hurting so bad I could not stand it anymore. The first words out of this same receptionist/secretary's mouth was "What are you taking now?" My response, "Nothing". So much for keeping up with what is going on. But other than that, In all this time I have only called and asked to speak to him directly or have him call me back 4 times. And do you know how many times I have spoken to him on the phone in 6 years in my so outrageously numerous requests? None. Approximately a year ago I had a PT Scan. When I got home sometime in the afternoon I was washing dishes and noticed that the tips of 2 of my fingers on my right hand were sensitive to the dish water. I looked and literally had a blister on one finger and the other was red, as if i had burned them on something. I searched my memory for a day and concluded I had not burned them. Two days later I called to ask if the PT Scan could have caused this; but my mistake was asking to speak to my physician. I waited til the end of the work day to call so I would not be interrupting his busy schedule. The same receptionist/secretary spoke to me. There was not a chance I was going to talk to the oncologist. She was so emphatic and rude that I wasn't about to discuss my query with her.
My issue is this: This supposedly caring/giving medical office and oncologist cannot make 2 minutes in his day to reassure a patient everything is ok or that the information they have given one is the best, or, that a procedure they recommend is the best route to take cannot possibly be giving their patients the best care possible. Is as though they have become 'omnipotent' and to doubt or have fear as their patient is insane. Obviously they don't care enough to be overly concerned. Six years later I have had no vacation, I thank God I am alive, and wonder at the lack of humanity shown by my medical support. I wonder at the lack of compassion, and really the lack of intelligence. Can any of you understand my feelings? Am I stupid? Are they? One other important thing as a post to the call made by me approximately a year ago about the 'burnt fingers'. The next day the blister and sensitivity were gone; and approximately 1 and 1/2 months later I had an appointment with this oncologist. At that time I asked if the PT Scan may have caused the burned feeling and blister and was told perhaps it had. I was also told I wouldn't be getting anymore PT Scans because "the harm caused outways the benefits" and in 2 years I might be sent to get a CT Scan. I also realized that he had not even been told I had called. I think my faith in this office is gone. That fear of what is to come is always in the back of one's mind when one goes through the ordeal that so many of us have gone through; and to have the one's we have relyed on so faithfully to show such a lack of compassion and concern, well for me anyway, really does scare the heck out of me; but more importantly this lack of concern and compassion disheartens me to the point of asking, "Who cares?", "Is it the almighty Buck that determines this aparrently 'phoney' concern I was shown when I stood alone, walked alone, so close to Death's door? Or does this Ocologist and his office need a good swift kick in the **** to get their hearts started again?