I agree!! No he is on vacation and so is his nurse...until the 8th!

I would explain the situation to the RO whom you have not met, and see if he will see you before the 8th. He is after all, a member of your team. He should be involved more than in name if he (and this at a cancer center) is truly a multidisciplinary team concerned with your well being. IF this is something recurring, he is likely going to be the person working with you as well, so getting him involved is appropriate on many levels. It is your life, not the doctor who is on vacation and has NO other doctor covering his cases while he is out. That is unthinkable in itself. Time to start fighting for YOU, something that no one is more vested in than you, and is only appropriate. While things do not get horribly worse over the course of a week, when it comes to cancers, time is never your friend.

I agree, Brian. This is an inexcusable situation for Shaylynn, and I imagine other patients as well.

I am having my PET scan sometime next week, as soon as my insurance approves it. My Dr. did tell me about the possibility of false positives and false negatives. He also said that if the SUV value is 10 or greater they would probably look at taking out the nodes and having them checked. If it was a 2 or 3 they may wait a few more months and do another scan to see if they have grown or staying the same. I think your values are really high. I hope you get a Dr. to discuss these results with you before the 8th. that just seems like a long time to wait.

I am confused I suppose on how this whole Cancer center works...This team approach. I mean my DR is on vacation until the 8th I have called and complained but no other dr can see me. I mean that makes sense that my dr would need to see me to discuss the next course of action not some dr who isnt apart of my team.

Shaylynn,

Are you at a Comprehensive Cancer Center? Were you evaluated by an RO, MO and ENT/Surgeon prior to your partial glossectomy and ND?

Even though I was seen at CCC, Moffitt in Tampa, I had one "lead" doctor which was my RO and everything had to flow through him. He was the one, and still is, that set all my appts so maybe this is what you are up against.

Again I'm not a doctor but I don't see a big concern physically about waiting until the 8th but you do need to try and calm down as that won't help anything.

Yes Margaret. I am at Brown Cancer center and they have a muti approach and I met with everyone on my team prior to all treatments.

David, yes that is what I guess I am trying to say. He is my lead DR and I totally understand why I am waiting. I was just curious if anyone had seen anything like this on their scan reports. I am in the medical field and have a pretty good understanding of what this all means.

The only problem I have until waiting until the 8th is that I am in a lot of phyical pain and having a hard time sleeping through the nights. That was my only concern.

Dan's primary was his ENT. However, we had access to everyone on the team and we found the NPs most responsive to anything that we needed. Each doctor had an NP and they all had email addresses and were amazingly good at responding daily.

If your main concern while you wait until the 8th is pain and sleep and you can't get help from anyone at your CCC, why not call your primary care doctor and tell him/her your situation and see if you could get some pain relief and a sleep aid? Our primary care doctor helped us a lot as well because he was 45 minutes closer than our CCC.

Good luck!

Margaret

Shaylynn,

By all means nag the other docs, especially the MO and get this pain under control. I called all my docs and complained until at least one helped me. Remember the Squeaky Wheel....