I belong to an online support group for people effected by ovarian cancer. Members consist of patients, caregivers, incognito health professionals, friends, spouses, family etc. Most of the members are female patients. Its fairly common that at some point you learn that many women on the site mention that their ovarian cancer was completely missed altogether or just very difficult to diagnose. I have a new friend who had the worst gynecologist ever it seems.
Doc is a friend of her husband, and I think that because of that, he didn't show this woman the respect she deserved. She had been going back and forth and back and forth to him, literally telling him that her symptoms sounded like ovarian cancer and he refused to do a CA125 blood test.
He kept telling her it was menapause, or it was fibroids, or it was this or that or whatever. He did the same to her that my gyno did to me. He said she was too young to have ovarian cancer and laughed it off.
I was fuming mad when I had read it, and wrote back a little about myself and our common experiences. She "friended" me and we e-mailed a little more.
MY FRUSTRATION IS THAT IF A WOMAN SAYS TO HER GYNOCOLOGIST OR PCP THAT SHE WANTS A CA125, AND SHE HAS SOME SIGNS OF OVARIAN CANCER, WHO IS THIS DOC TO DENY THE TEST?????????????? WHO IS HE/SHE TO PLAY GOD?????????
If I would have know the symptoms of ovarian cancer before I was diagnosed, I would have paid for the blood test myself, screw my doctor! I'm totally serious. Every woman should have the right to have this test. I KNOW THE CA125 IS NOT TOTALLY RELIABLE, BUT IF YOU HAVE OTHER SYMPTOMS, THE TEST SHOULD BE DONE, PERIOD.
This could literally save a life! Do they teach medical students about ovarian cancer? Have they just given up on us? Why are they so complacent to just let it get to stage IIIC? My friends doctor kept telling her it was pointless anyway because if they found it later it would be too late anyway!
What an ass.
I try not to use profanity, but really. She could have had early stage ovarian cancer treated and not live her remaining life in fear. Instead she was treated as an advanced stage patient, and even being NED/remission, her chances of recurrence are incredibly high. So are mine. We think about it all the time.
I don't want to live the rest of my life worrying about recurrence, and I am getting help in this area. I want to be happy. I want to be joyous and loving and happy and fun to be around.
At the same time I want to create a huge punching bag that has all the names of the docs who have negligently allowed women to advance into later stages of ovarian cancer, and give all those women a chance to pounce!
Thats the problem. Underneath all this healing simmers ever so slowly a burning anger that this could have been prevented. I have forgiven almost all of my doctors, except for two. I'm close to forgiving them.
I'm hoping to finish that by Christmas. The docs are just plain idiots, and really don't listen to their patients. We can't continue to allow this to keep happening. We just cant.
Be Love and God Bless
Thank you so much for such a sweet comment on my blog so now what comes around goes around!) You too are a precious gift to others with your knowledge. I too wished that more doctors would at least listen to patients instead of treating many of us like we are not as educated about our bodies as if they are even though we have been living our bodies our whole lives? A tilted cervix = painful sex; give me a break? That was one of the excuses I got from my doctor for many years and that's why my supposed slow growing cancer grew out of control? Its a lesson that we need to be very proactive about our treatment and not all doctors are GOD as so many fail to believe. I wish you many, many years of good quality, painfree years and lots of love in your life! We all need it!
ReplyDeleteRead the same post today and had the same reaction you did! Have a friend in Tacoma who was similarly fumbled until she was dx St 4 at debulking. She's the one who steered me to the study at Bastyr.
ReplyDeleteWill contact you backchannel about your ND! Isn't it exciting to get on the track of "fixing things?" The questionaire is probably the standard we fill out quarterly in the Bastyr study, and it can be uplifting when you answer that you think you can beat it-sometimes you just need to be asked the correct questions. You Rock Sista, and thanks for taking the time to put this blog up for us!
Greetings to Jayne/the Shopping (good) Karma Babe, too. Glad to see you're still hanging and fighting. Both you courageous ladies are an inspiration to me and I wish you to be well.
Jan