Barb:
I'm a caregiver, too. My guy was diagnosed in July 21, 2003. Though his cancer would/should not necessarily have been diagnosed by a dentist (I am the office manager for a dentist) it should have been diagnosed WAY sooner than it was.

Ed, over the course of about 7/8 months complained of swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, and persistent dry cough. We went to the family doctor a bunch of times, the allergist a bunch of times (everyone prescribed antibiotics), finally our accupuncturist looked him square in the eye and said - GET THIS BIOPSIED! He was the most serious of all professionals he went to see...

Ed went in for day surgery thinking that he'd get it removed and life would be good. When the doctor came out of surgery, he told me it was "the strangest thing" (we went to a plastic surgeon because of the location of the lump)... He was pretty graphic in his description, assured me he flushed the area with a "copious amount of saline" and took what he felt comfortable taking because of the "depth" of the mass.

This was a Thursday. On Monday, Ed came to work to pick me up and the doctor had already told him. Come to find out it was there so long and had done its cancer thing - what was biopsied was metastatic carcinoma with the primary site unknown...

Long and short of it. We got our butt in gear, stirred the pot to get all the doctors ready to roll and within 1 week we had MRI/PET scans and knew where the primary site was and 2 weeks after that he started treatment (chemo/radiation simultaneously).

Any and all doctors should be prepared to think beyond the mere shot and a couple of pills or a mere peek in your mouth. I appreciate your willingness to stand up and make them take notice. Our lives depend on their expertise!

Thanks for speaking out!

Susan