New Beginnings

As of Friday 08-12-05 – New Cancer Care Center, New Oncologist, New Schedule, Renewed (yet cautious) Spirits, Hope and Trust. The trust issue is really hard for me now. I am on the reserved side with everything that has happened prior to this new oncologist. I feel bad for her, because it isn’t her fault. I tried to not show my shaky trust issue and hopefully she didn’t see I have a problem with it. I stayed very low key regarding what has happened in the past, but she was able to pick it up in my medical records and lab results. They spoke a story all in themselves!

New Cancer Care Center – It is the real thing! What a difference from where I was being treated before! They have a 24 hour call in triage. They have information…..verbal, literature, computers, you name it they have it! The American Cancer Society has a navigator on site. They have a place on site to be fitted for and obtain a breast prosthesis. They give you a prescription for it! I forgot to ask about an arm compression sleeve, but I have no doubt they know about them also! More than likely they will help me with that too! They have support groups and support people. Personally, I don’t know if that is “my thing”….the support groups and support people, but it sure feels good to know they are available.

New Oncologist – She went over all of the previous medical reports, doctors’ statements, lab tests and paperwork fairly carefully…or so it seemed anyway. After reading all of it she came to a much different conclusion than the previous oncologist. She does not believe it was my teeth that landed me in the near death experience and in the hospital. Yes, they became a part of the whole scenario, but not the reason. She was very careful with her wording, which shows she has respect for the medical profession, (aka: covering your butt) but she did tell me some things that have alarmed me further regarding my past treatments and health care that I have already received for my breast cancer. I am not at liberty to go into them in depth here, so just take it that it was not information I wanted to hear, but it was information I NEEDED to know.

Regarding my teeth issue – The new oncologist is going to get in touch with my new dentist to work things out. I will learn more Monday or Tuesday, but at this point, it looks like the pulling of my teeth is on hold. I certainly like the idea of being able to eat real foods while going through chemo! As far as the problems with my teeth and the pain…well that issue is going to be dealt with as best as possible. And heck, if chemo has a way of doing bad things to teeth, which I now know can happen, at least I’m not risking anything! They are already bad!

New Schedule – I am being put back on a chemo schedule. My next treatment will be this coming Friday, 8-19-05. After reviewing my files, she feels it is key critical that I get chemo again a.s.a.p. and stay on track with it as close as possible. She is going to do things differently, but the same dose dense schedule and same chemo drugs will be used. She is looking at putting me on some heavy duty pain killers to avoid side affects that my body has already shown to be prone to, along with the teeth problem, so I may be in la-la land for a few months. That might be a GOOD thing!

Information Given – After the oncologist was done talking with me she sent in her nurse that specializes in informing the patients with information regarding the in and outs of the chemo drugs, eating, fatigue, body changes and lots, lots more. Because of the past care I have received (or should we say perhaps the lack of in areas), they felt it best to start at the beginning as if I had never had a chemo treatment before. Ed was with me on this appointment and we are both very glad they did it this way. We learned things that we had never been informed of before, but should have been.

Renewed (yet cautious) Spirits, Hope and Trust – As I stated in the beginning, I am now cautious. I was far too trusting and for the most part unquestioning when it came to my previous health care/cancer care providers. This has been proven to be a mistake. Besides the risk of not stopping the cancer because of their approach, they put my life at risk in other ways.

Cancer is such an unknown subject to the general person and that included me until I became faced with it first hand. I have learned so very much in such a short time. I am hopeful that I will see a point in time soon that I will regain my trust and feel 100% comfortable with my new cancer center and doctors. So far things look good, but it is time that will tell the answer. Because of the status and the excellent reputation this center has, I have no doubt I have made a very positive move and am back on the main road to reach my goal of becoming a long term survivor. I definitely feel the ball is back in my court. Such a short time ago that ball was ricocheting all over the place!

The only downside that I see to any of this: This cancer center is a distance from here. Each appointment, blood draw, lab test, and chemo session will take a three hour round trip to do. Two thirds of the way is state highway, so that helps. But it is going to be hard, harder on those days I don’t feel well, hard when the weather is bad or it is snowing or freezing and with the cost of gas, it is going to be expensive. The expensive part is going to take some real brain storming on my part to figure out and do. But it certainly looks like it is worth it.

There is always give and take to everything. This time, it appears the give portion will be time and money. If I were to stay with the other health care providers, even though they are an hour closer, the give portion might be much pricier in the end. My life. Much too risky and way too high of a price for me!