Good day everyone!
I hope to make my point and experience clear with everyone. I am not much of a writer so please bare with me as I will try to do my best in explaining my situation.
I recently submitted my slides to Johns Hopkins for a second opinion. The pathology report from my first read didn't quiet correspond to the surgery notes nor to what I saw during my first cystoscopy. The pathology read carcinoma in situ with cautery artifact of the lamina propria. Nothing about the "papillary frondiness" of the other tissue. So with that discrepancy and with other people saying a second opinion is best, I asked to have my slides shipped to Johns Hopkins for a second opinion.
Cut to the chase, the path report from Johns Hopkins stated invasion of the lamina propria which increased my stage from Tcis to T1. I still haven't received the path report from Johns Hopkins, but that is a different story. My urologist, on the other hand, did receive the path report and did leave me a very brief voice message on my phone telling me he would contact me at a later date. That date came and went without any calls from the urologist. My husband was upset with the urologist for not calling and rode his bicycle eight miles to the doctor's office to ask his staff to contact us as soon as possible. The following day the urologist's staff and I started to play telephone tag. Well, that was the last straw. I wanted no part of this so I fired him.
I am now scheduled to see Dr. Ahmann at the University of Arizona Cancer Center this coming Thursday. And, to hedge my bets, I have an appointment with another urologist from the same group as my previous urologist except that this new urologist works in a different office. This appointment is for the 22 April.
Now to my point and question(s). Point 1: A second opinion of your pathology may be beneficial to you as it was in my case. Point 2: My first urologist was a nightmare, and I am hoping that the new one won't be so assholish. When I first met my urologist, he entered the exam room grumbling under his breath, "what, we've got a run on blood in the urine today?" He thought he was treating my husband until my husband said my wife is here to see you even though I was sitting next to him in the exam room. I won't bore you with other specifics of the relationship I had with this guy (we tried once to ask him questions, but he threw a temper tantrum and said he didn't have time to answer all of our questions and to select only a few).
Question 1: at what point in the game plan does a patient jump from a potential disastrous relationship to a better one? Question 2: my follow-up cystoscopy was scheduled for April 9 one month ahead of schedule. Will the change cause any ill-effect to my potential progress of cancer? Question 3: did everyone have to wait one month just to meet his/her urologist before treatment started?
Thank you all for listening.
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