Spoke to my father today to get an update on his appointment. The healthcare system punted my fathers care back to his primary care physician. The appointment went pretty well. They physician told my father that his sweats are probably related to his cancer, the enormity of all the information he was just hit with, the amount of change his mind and body are going through, and the fact that he is just not eating and...
It is the evening of October 15th, day 21, and I sit in my office looking at the pictures on the wall, looking out my office window into the dark sky. My thoughts are clouded by the events of today. My father only has 6 to maybe 8 months left. I don't want to focus on the numbers, but it is all my mind keeps playing around in my mind. I continue to think if there...
Tuesday October 15th my father was scheduled to meet the oncologist at 2:30pm. My fathers morning begun a bit earlier when he awoke at 1am with a bit of pain. He finally decided that he needed to take a pain pill and hopefully get some additional sleep. It was the first time he really took a pain pill in 10 days, since he worries of the "addiction" that could come with taking pain pills. My morning...
Since the mid 1990’s, delays in patients beginning treatment for cancer care have been increasing. As the population of the U.S. continues, more people will continue to be diagnosed with cancer, and as new therapies continue to extend survival rates, the demand for health services focusing on cancer will continue to increase and stress the healthcare system. In the below chart you can see how the time it takes from a patient having a biopsy, being...
Today is day 17 of my fathers journey. I finally received the information on the pathology report that I had been awaiting. It is adenocarcinoma of the pancreas, with metastatic disease to the liver. My father has Stage IV pancreatic cancer. How did I finally obtain all of the information is a small glimpse into the world of what is broken inside of healthcare. My parents did not get a call within 24 hours from the physician on...
Today my father went in for his EUS to get a biopsy from the tail of the pancreas where they believe his possible cancer resides. The hospital called on Friday and asked if they could move up his procedure time to 11am. My father was all excited about that since he knew he would have to fast. My parents were called on Monday the 7th of October and asked to arrive by 9am, to get him...