It's been one of those days! Yesterday I noticed a mall hole around a stitch at the tip of my tongue - looked like I pulled the stitch - or almost like a hollowed out area where the stitch sits between the new tongue and old - it's small - 2mm maybe? GP said he though it might be a canker.. Had an appointment with him for something unrelated so I had him look - well I trust him but he's not a specialist.

Anyway - I called my surgeon - the secretary said - dr. Irish is in surgery - let me call. She called me back - as I said I had to be at the hospital today to pick up my flouride trays and later tonight for a CT. Figuring if he or one of his collegues was around - maybe one of them could take a look. No go... She said 2 or 3 weeks. Or have my RO Dr. Cho look at it.

Well my radiation plan has already been designed and I do not have an appointment to see him again.(I explained this to dr. Irish's secretary but she didn't seem to hear it or maybe understand it???). Soooo. I though I would give it a try in person. I picked up my trays headed to the head & neck clinic where a different secretary told me to check with the carding station for an appointment - the carding station sent me back to them. I tried to explain this to them and they sent me back to the carding station -

Some gentleman overheard, took pity on me, followed me and told me to go down to the nursing station in the basement - they would get a dr. to look at me. So I go there. Explain the whole thing again. Nurse looks at me and says we're radiation - not surgery - I said - I know but I was told to show dr. Cho. They call him - He's not available so his fellow calls back. He says - she a surgical patient - I haven't started my radiation yet. So then the nurse calls my surgeon's office they get into it on the phone - secretary says she will call the nurse back dr. Irish is in his office - she calls back 30 minutes later - dr. Irish is now in surgery. She tells the nurse to call dr. Cho. Nurse calls Cho. Tells him all that has transpired - where he says - it's a surgical issue they are just trying to pass her off on us! No fricking kidding!! Nurse says cho should call irish directly she does not want to be caught in the middle. Again no kidding! I've started a war here... And I feel like I am about to become the first casualty!

At this point I have been there an hour nurse is feeling sorry for me as I now have tears in my eyes. She tells me to go to emergency - (across the street) and they will call the surgeon to come down. I thanked her and needless to say came home in tears... I have never felt so much like a rotten potato being passed around as I did today.

I was contemplating going to emerge tonight but there are people there who genuinely need to be there. I don't. I just wanted to have someone look at this to see if it's normal - took an hour calmed down called a friend and vented - then I called dr. Irish's office again. Told her that they told me to go to emerge where I gathered they would call him or his fellow out of surgery - which I told her I though was stupid - and a waste of everyone's time - she gave me an appointment this Wednesday.

Moral? The squeaky wheel does eventually get the oil I suppose. But there has to be a better way of doing this... And people - my dr. Is supposed to be the best in his field in Canada.... What the heck!!!???

Ergh!

Cheryl

Here is a link to one of Toronto's Medical marijuana clubs C.A.L.M. Sounds like you need to apply
Toronto MJ
I'm channeling EricS tonight after reading Ingrid K's inspirational story about her 81 year old friend of her fathers who suggested MJ. And yes, keep stepping up when that dirt hits you (wow, three different threads combined into one answer)
Keep the Faith
Charm

Charm...I think we're turning OCF into a bake fest lol...Brian, I'm sorry sir, we'll be presentable in public I swear!

you are a master charm... thanks ... I am better now... just yesterday was humiliating and infuriating and an emotional freak out kind of day.

Have you ever felt like someone just wanted you to GO AWAY... Disappear through the cracks... well that was yesterday... and unfortunately I think my survival instincts are too strong for that... maybe my pride too... but this is my health here we're talking about and damned if I will let them treat me like a number (in this case a 0)

thanks you made me smile.

eric... I like baking.... Um... but the gooey cakey kind... I suppose i could get used to both.

We've had that passed around feeling...not fun. It would be nice if one person would be in charge of coordinating the whole situation. We have an MO and RO an ENT and a oncology dentist in addition to a GP. When treatment was suspended, the RO expected us to call and cancel the radiation appointment. The MO called to tell us chemo and radiation treatment was suspended, so we naturally thought we didn't need to cancel. I guess everyone wants to be the chief.

bizarre... I swear... I know that people are in deadly situations everyday. I get that we - just because we are cancer patients aren't - special. However, this is an emotionally challenging disease, just as other debilitating diseases are. I would hope that a hospital that deals SPECIFICALLY with cancer, is geared towards treating the WHOLE PATIENT, would get it. I mean seriously. No one should be treated like a number in this world. I truly believe we are all equal. This just makes me mad.

And passing the buck is basically a sign of laziness...

I was willing to forgo the original complaints I had when I was post op, because I thought it wss maybe an anomaly. Now I realize is a symptom of a greater problem. So I wrote the letter today... just need to dig up an email address to send it to the hospital.

I'm sorry you have had to go through a similar situation. You would think that knowing a patient already has a lot on their plate, they would try to make it a little easier by doing what they should.

@ Cheryl--you'll like this one. J had to have wisdom teeth removed pre-radiation. There was nothing wrong with them. But, since radiation causes bone issues, the oncology dentist recommended having them out. So she referred us to an oral surgeon who thought he'd pull a fast one and charge for impacted wisdom teeth. I found out because I needed the billing codes for the insurance estimate and we got a second "estimate" from USC School of Dentistry. USC quoted a specific price over the phone using the billing codes. When J went for the consult, USC's price per tooth went down significantly and the billing code changed. I called the oral surgeon and ripped his office staff a new one. I also called J's onc. dentist and told her about it. She was very upset. How disgusting to overcharge patients--happens all the time probably. But, cancer patients?!? Isn't it enough of a financial, emotional, physical, etc. burden already?!? But to cheat people who are already suffering?!? There's a special place in the afterlife for people like that. I like to think it involves teeth being pulled without anesthesia.

Some people just don't give a crap about anything but the lowest denominator - cash. Seriously! I cannot imagine having to worry about insurance, and other financial elements (especially when one income has been put on hold) and then have someone try to scam me. It's too bad you can't report him. It's interesting that J's oncology dentist suggested wisdom teeth be removed... I have 3 impacted and mine said they've been there this long we'll leave them.

There's a serious lack of ethics out there these days... He deserves to have a drill placed somewhere very uncomfortanble.

Many hugs and hopenthings go well!

Sandy - thanks for posting your experiences with the dental codes. I hadn't ever thought to check that but from now on I will. When I needed a tooth drilled and a new cap, my dentist recommended gold because it would last longer. Well, it didn't and a couple of months later, I needed another new cap so I said this time I wanted a cheaper cap so he said ok. I asked the dentist to give me back my gold cap so I could go sell it to one of those wavy arm people you see on the street who want to buy your gold. He said he had a special collection of used gold that he turns in and he would give me a discount on my new cap. With all the work I've had done, I think I've paid for his next vacation.