I’ve had 3 rounds of EC and now changing to another one .I’ve had no appointment with my oncologist because they said there is no room in clinic .And I should of had a scan .But again not heard anything .I’m due to start new chemo next week .
I rang the oncology and they just said no appointments .
Hi Yoda
You probably feel quite neglected. And very pissed off! It’s hard to accept just how overworked our current medical services are, partly as a result of the pandemic as they have had to stagger patients and clinics and are now playing catch-up.
I don’t know how your hospital works but mine always had an (invisible) oncology doctor on duty in the chemo suites so maybe you could ask if a doctor is on duty and speak to her/him about your concerns. Alternatively you could ask if your breast care nurse could pop and see you while you are wired up (but, assuming you’re having weekly chemo next, the treatment session is a lot shorter). I didn’t get a consultation between finishing the 3 x EC and moving onto weekly paclitaxel but I had been hospitalised for neutropoenic sepsis for 4 days in that last week, so maybe they thought they’d seen enough of me. I was very surprised to move from sepsis straight to another debilitating chemo but the schedule is fixed!
Scan appointments are notoriously slow to come through at the moment and the reports are even slower. That won’t help how you feel but I hope you’ll be reassured by the fact that your MDTeam would never ‘neglect’ you if there were any risk. Have you been seen by an adjuvant oncology nurse? Most of my appointments monitoring treatment were with a nurse. I only saw the oncologist when I really needed a week off (AO nurse’s opinion) and towards the end of the 9 paclitaxel weeks to prepare me for radiotherapy and hormone therapy.
I hope your next treatment is kind to you and that you are able to speak to either an oncologist, an AO nurse (much more useful in terms of the practicalities of your treatment) or breast care nurse next week. You need reassurance about the scan. All the best xx