Sorry for the misspelling last time.

I don't know if my family is just doomed or if there simply are no competent people in the state of FL. It is obvious that my mother is late-stage OC but getting her started on some treatment seems to be impossible.

At the second ENT consultation Tuesday, they wanted to schedule an ultrasound liver biopsy to determine what kind of cells are in the tumor (squamous or lung). They tried to get it done the same day but that didn't work. The nurse gave me my mother's lung CT to give to them when the biopsy was scheduled. They indicated it would probably be Wednesday. No phone calls Wednesday so I called. "Oh,the person who schedules that is out today. Call back Thursday". Must be nice to be so important. Called Thursday - "Gee, I'll have to see what is going on". Finally found out late Thursday that they don't think it's amenable to ultrasound, probably CT but they need the films that I have. Now we get to wait until next week when they get the film. We also asked about seeing a medical oncologist and were told it's too soon. They wait any longer and my mother will die before getting any treatment.

I don't think going to an ENT was the best choice for my mother because the two that we've gone to have no interest unless it involves surgery. But I don't feel confident in medical oncologists to know enough about body systems to be making the recommendations of treatment. The theory of the multidisciplinary approach is good in theory but the practice breaks down somewhere along the way.

To compound this, my mother gets angry at me when I point out the error of their ways. They say ignorance is bliss but it can also be deadly.

That is my venting for now. These battles are beginning to wear on me.

Cynthia

Cynthia,

My heart goes out to you and all the frustrations you are going through at the time. I know the wait from my initial diagnoses until my operation was so frustrating and confusing. I waited a little over two months from the time I was initially told until the big day. Hang in there and count to 10 if you must. Of course I just told them what I thought and left my poor husband there to do the explaining. I said some really nasty stuff to them. Now it is a joke between all of my Doctors and me about what a bad patient I am, even though I'm a really quick healer.

Take care and my thoughts are with you.

Anne.

The very nature of cancer dictates that a multidisciplinary approach is the best way to treat it. It spreads through multiple systems of the body, requiring different individuals with diverse knowledge, and the types of treatments we have available are very unique and different, requiring specialists in each area. So it becomes necessary for a guy who is a specialist in head and neck surgery (which an ENT is not by the way) to interface with a guy who does thoracic surgery to deal with the lungs, who interfaces with a radiology oncologist who deals with another treatment modality etc. etc. etc.

In all my postings regarding this approach I always emphasize that I prefer a multidisciplinary cancer care facility. Examples would be Sloan Kettering or MD Anderson. All the various specialists are all located and working together in the same place as a matter of routine. The support staff is accustomed to the logistics of the interfacing and timing of procedures and they streamline people through the different processes. But the most important aspect of being in this kind of facility is going to the tumor board there. At my tumor board on my 7th day of going through tests, I sat in a room with over 25 different specialists who reviewed all my films and tests on this big movie screen, each examined me (I had more fingers than I can count stuck down my throat feeling around) and then for the better part of an hour they discussed, and even argued, their individual perspectives on how I should be treated and in what sequence. What came out of that tumor board was a definitive plan that was immediately put into place and coordinated and scheduled day by day, for the next three months. I knew right there and then when my radiation was going to end, and two months down the road when I was going to have my neck dissection etc