My sister is currently receiving radiation treatments for cancer of the tonsils at the Walt Disney Cancer Institute (in Orlando, FL off of Rollins) twice a day. She expressed concern because there are very few patients in the waiting room if at all, when she arrives for her appointment. Does anyone have experience at this location and is this the way most waiting rooms are everywhere for oncologists? She has just completed her third week-very weak and very nauseous.

I haven't heard much about this institution. But in the large cancer centers around the country, Memorial Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, etc., the waiting rooms are well filled, and sitting in them was one of my least favorite ways to spend my time. While there was some camaraderie between people that I ran into there on a daily basis, their presence also served to remind me that I was part of a big club, and some were significantly worse off than me. Seeing them tough it out, kept my whining to a minimum. But I wouldn't judge an institution by the crowd in the waiting rooms which it seems like you are trying to do. Hospitals are rated on their success rates, as are doctors, and if you have doubts you should speak to the administration at that institution or others, if you have a desire to change. Several magazines routinely publish a list of the best institutions by types of disease they treat. They are impartial in their selections. The impressions and personal opinions of individuals in a forum, will likely be unreliable at best. Re: the nausea...starting at the end of my second week, it was a normal part of my day until shortly after the treatments stopped.