As quoted below, is a message which I received today. It is not uncommon and I receive these messages on a weekly basis. In addition, while I do not typically intervene between patient and the healthcare system, I did so recently. In this case, the healthcare facility was scheduling a followup imaging procedure with a wait period of several weeks. They did not listen to the patient nor did they recognize nor consider the implications of her extensive family cancer history. All of these things would have led to a rather quick conclusion as to the specialist required. With intervention, an expedited referral to an oncology specialist was warranted and obtained, as opposed to waiting for more diagnostics. With intervention, she was able to see the specialist and confirm what should have been obvious, within a few days. I am happy that your experience was wonderful, however, to put it into perspective it is not always the way. As to today's request, I took out personal information, other than that it is a direct quote. Sandi > My Mother lives in .........., , which is close to ........ She was > diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer in ..... 2005. She was assigned a > Gastro-Intestinal Oncologist, as they didn't have any Gyn-Oncs to > assign her two. This "doctor" failed to give my Mother any real > information about her disease - she didn't even tell her she was Stage > IV for nearly 4 months. She absolutely refused to allow my mother to > go for the debulking surgery, and in October 2005, after 3 tx of > Carbo/Taxol, 3 tx of Topotecan and one tx of oral Etopiside she told > my mother there was nothing more to be done for her and that she > needed to begin palliative care. > > I live in ......., ...... I contacted the .......... Cancer Centre in > ..... and they requested Mom's medical records. In less than two > weeks, they had contacted Mom for an evaluation appointment, booked > her for a debulking surgery and gave my Mom a new found hope. > > Unfortunately, the surgery proved to be too late, and they weren't > able to remove any of the cancer as it was too far spread. However, > having the chance to look around inside, they were able to see that > her vital organs, at that time, were clean - no visible disease. > > Mom then returned to ............. to begin tx with Gemcitibine > (Gemzar), and the original "Doctor" again stopped her treatments after > 3 rounds. We immediately contacted the ............. and they have > taken over her treatment. Though they haven't had any great success > with her treatments so far, they haven't given up hope on her which > allows Mom to keep her hope up and to continue to fight this horrible > disease. > > ------------------- Problems/Questions? Send it to Listserv owner: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe, send the following message in the text section -- NOT the subject header -- to [log in to unmask] SIGNOFF SDOH DO NOT SEND IT BY HITTING THE REPLY BUTTON. THIS SENDS THE MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE LISTSERV AND STILL DOES NOT REMOVE YOU. To subscribe to the SDOH list, send the following message to [log in to unmask] in the text section, NOT in the subject header. SUBSCRIBE SDOH yourfirstname yourlastname To post a message to all 1000+ subscribers, send it to [log in to unmask] Include in the Subject, its content, and location and date, if relevant. For a list of SDOH members, send a request to [log in to unmask] To receive messages only once a day, send the following message to [log in to unmask] SET SDOH DIGEST To view the SDOH archives, go to: https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html