he desire to be seen as a person is a common complaint among cancer patients caught in a system that seems overwhelmed by waiting lists and swamped by test results, where phone calls tunnel through to voice mail and a busy doctor may have mere minutes to explain the most complicated, heart-stopping medical information.
Lynda Coghill recalls how her doctor barely spared a few seconds to deliver a curt death sentence. The Newmarket, Ont., school teacher was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 39. At an appointment after surgery and radiation, she told her oncologist she was still bleeding. He did a quick exam, announced she had a new tumour, and said bluntly: “Your chances are slim to none.” He told her to wait a few weeks for the results of a biopsy, then left to treat a patient down the hall.
“I looked at the nurse in sheer disbelief,” Ms. Coghill says. “The doctor had proceeded to tell me, in less than 30 seconds, that I was going to die. He didn't seem to care that I had three small children.”
She cried for days, unable to eat or sleep. She and her husband planned her funeral. At last, she contacted the sympathetic nurse from the doctor's office and persuaded her to call for an “unofficial” biopsy report. The tumour was benign. Eight years later, Ms. Coghill remains angry about having been treated “like a numbered object on an assembly line.”
To get the best care, patient advocates say, it's not enough to wait passively in an appointment room. You have to go out and get it.'
From The Globe and Mail - Link
This article does not, we think, apply just to cancer patients...and it is telling that physicians dread falling ill, because then they would be cast in the role of... patients.
From the drama/film WIT with Emma Thompson. This patient was too good, and paid the ultimate price.
It's good to be patient - but not too patient...
Illuminations from THE RUNAWAY BUNNY by Margaret Wise Brown.
