Degrees of Separation

It’s been a frustrating day in the world of Western medicine.

The surgeon, or, more accurately, the physician’s assistant (PA) to the surgeon, couldn’t tell us much we didn’t already know. We do now know that the swelling and hardness that’s been causing pain under my arm is a hematoma–a pooling of blood that will be reabsorbed into my body in a month or two.

Regarding possible treatment, she said it was best to talk to experts–one medical oncologist and one radiation oncologist. One expert for systemic treatments like hormones and chemotherapy, and another for radiation. Nothing is clear yet. Both should call later this week to make two separate appointments for sometime in the future. More waiting.

Steve has been doing the number research online to assess adjuvant therapy options. There are several pieces of information necessary for the probability stats. One is the stage of cancer (mine is Stage 1 or 2) and another is the differentiation of cells. We asked about that today. Apparently, it’s a question for the pathologist but here’s the rub. The pathologist who reviewed the cells from the surgery didn’t do that type of typing. The first pathologist who examined the biopsy cells did. But since the first pathologist wasn’t privy to the second pathologists’ information, he can’t provide an answer to our questions either. The PA suggested that we get the second report sent to the first guy after we get back from Boston.

Everyone is so specialized and separate that it seems no one knows the whole picture.

We spent the afternoon collecting films (x-rays) from the different locations who have all taken pictures of my chest. We’ll take those with us Thursday when we go to Boston. Then we worked on our taxes. Life does go on and we're quite certain the IRS doesn't make exceptions for cancer diagnoses.

We hope the Boston specialists can offer a more integrated approach. They actually have a center for “Integrated Medicine” which includes such things as herbal supplements (I’ve been reading about the results from Traditional Chinese Medicine supplements), acupuncture, reiki, qigong, support groups and family meditation sessions. Their approach is so desirable, I couldn’t get an appointment until May 12. Our appointment Holy Thursday is with an oncology internist in a separate department. More separation; more waiting.