Lots of ????\'s...

Dieseldoc: That's what my gp's office led me to believe would happen.

So, I met the Uro...I'm not going to lie. The drive there and back wasn't worth the conversation. We could have had it over the phone.

My spouse felt a little "better" by the time we left though. The doctor's words, "I don't want to give you false hope because you could have cancer, but based on your age and lifestyle it's unlikely."

I left feeling slightly more concerned because the ct report said both kidneys looked fine, but the Dr. said there was an irregularity on the right kidney where the urine collects.

The Dr. told me it was very unfortunate the length of time I have been left wondering if I have bladder cancer or not. In alomos the same breath he told me it would be after the first of the year before they could do the cystoscopy. I pushed, and it is moved to Dec. 19th...ten more days after my first Uro appointment.

Cancer or no cancer, I want to know what it is and how we fix it. A month long process just to identify the cause seems a bit slow to me. However, I'm going to attempt to step out of my head and enjoy the next week or so without dwelling on the "c" word.

Thanks for the thoughts & support! I'm not discussing any of this very freely because I don't want my middle school aged children to know anything at all yet. It's Christmas and their lives are hormonal enough without having to worry about a parent!

I was refered to my URO, got an appointment, and scoped. All in the same day. I was in the URO's office at 10:00 AM, in surgery at 2:00 PM, and home by 5:30 PM. It all went so fast I didn't even have time to soak it all in.

When I had my first visit to the Urologist we had an office visit and then a quick visit to the cystoscope, where we watched the cancer in living color and he laid out the whole series of steps he was going to take to eradicate it.

Here is to you NOT having cancer. Don't push the panic button and pre diagnose yourself.

Just be prepared to be your own advocate.

Best of luck.... Hope your application to this club is REJECTED!

George

I can well understand your frustration, and the delay can certainly be worrisome when you want a diagnosis. However, I think it is quite normal for urologists to have a meeting with you first, to go over your prior test results with you and discuss your situation. I, too, wondered why the cystoscopy wasn't scheduled for my first appointment. I'm not sure how busy your urologist is compared with mine, but I WILL say that the cystocopy was scheduled only a week or so after the time of the first appointment. One thing the urologist wanted to discuss with me was whether he might want to do a biopsy at the same time, which he decided he wouldn't do after going over my test results. And, the TURBT surgery to remove the tumor he verified on the cystoscopy was scheduled a few weeks after the cysto.

But by all means seek a second opinion if you aren't thoroughly satisfied with the way you are being treated.

Good luck!

Ann

I was just talking to my wife, Liz about this very thing. I was saying how doctors and maybe even more importantly, their staffs, need some training on what it means to have cancer or be under constant surveylence for cancer.

How would that reeptionist or nurse feel if someone tld them they might have cancer and when they tried to go to the doctor who could potentially confirm or deny that they were told "oh no, the doc just wants to chat this time, maybe in a month or so he can get around to actually having a look"?

They all need a Rod Serling phone call beginning "imagine,if you will...."

I think some docs would be flabbergasted if they knew how some of their staff are insensitive to the patients.

I was getting annoyed trying to get my tests ordered so I could get my three year cancer free sticker and it took a month to finally get the dang tests scheduled. It was clear that they did not understand that this was a pretty important thing for me to have done in a reasonably timely manner. The doctor wrote the order the day I called. The time was the staff not getting it done or looking in my record for the fax number to send the test orders.

Ok. I'll shut up now.

Mike