Tales from the Radiotherapy Lounge
When you go to radiation every day for a month or two, you start to get to know your fellow patients and exchange stories. The people I see each day have very interesting stories, only I usually only get to hear them in two-minute intervals, before one of us is called away. Damn that efficiency at Alta Bates!
One man has educated me, in snippets, on the treatment of early stage prostate cancer. I found it fascinating. Before this, I didn't know that now they can use radiation treatment in place of surgery. Usually the boys and girls don't talk across gender in the waiting room (don't ask me why; we have only about five or six chairs shoved together in a row!) but this gentleman is sociable.
Another woman who I talk with often was telling me the story of her diagnosis. I am often amazed at how hard women have to work just to get a lump diagnosed correctly. She had a hard time getting a radiologist to acknowledge a problem in her mammogram (she had a distinct lump) because a radiologist a year or two before had seen an anomaly in that same spot and dismissed it. Apparently, it's not uncommon for a radiologist to consider the history and dismiss what a previous radiologist dismissed, rather than contradict them. (Oh my!) Then when she finally was able to see a surgeon, the surgeon performed a core needle biopsy that missed the tumor site by an inch and a half and she didn't even tell the patient! She finally had to find someone else in order to get her cancer diagnosis, and now she can't help but wonder if it would have been a lower-stage cancer if it was just diagnosed when she first went in.
(Hearing her story makes me feel very grateful that I had competent physicians taking care of me every step of the way. I may be frustrated by patient care issues, but I have no doubt that my treatment was state-of-the-art and accurate. Thank goodness!)
This same patient shared that when she was going to start chemo, she asked a chemo nurse if she'd be okay to drive herself home afterward. The nurse said yes, she should be fine because any nausea from chemo wasn't likely to start until 6 to 12 hours after the infusion. What she neglected to consider was the pre-meds they give you during an infusion. I don't think anyone should be driving around with Benadryl and Ativan in his or her system - talk about woozy! My friend was left with a dicey drive home after what was no doubt a stressful experience.
Yet another patient alerted me to a book displayed in the gift shop of this cancer center. It's called, 101 Things to Do Before You Die by Richard Horne. No, I did not make that up. Is it just me, or is this in bad taste? Yowsah! Maybe it is inspirational to some people (such as those who need suggestions to bungee jump, have ménage à trios, and get arrested) but...I just don't know.
Never a dull moment, at least I can say that!
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