Saturday October 12th my father was finally scheduled for his long awaited PET scan. My parents and I arrived at the hospital at 7am. Within less than five minutes someone cam back to explain the scan to my father and escort him back to the scanner. As soon as my father was out of sight, I turned and asked my mother how she was doing. She just looked at my and begin to weep. I leaned...
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...
So the morning came and by about 10am I was done waiting to hear from my mother and I called her for an update. She had informed me that as of that moment, no one had called her or my father back. I encouraged her to call both the primary care physicians office as well as the GI surgeon. She had to leave messages. About an hour later, the nurse for the GI surgeon gave my...
Today is Friday, the 4th of October. Spoke to my mother this morning and she said that my father is feeling a bit better. Apparently on Thursday he didn't sleep well, he had to take pain medication twice, and pain upon urination. On Tuesday morning my father went in for a stent placement. Typically the urologist will place a mesh like stent, but in my father's case they place a metallic spring like coil as a...
In my previous post I discussed the fact that an ultrasound was being scheduled for my father. It took the hospital 5 business days to schedule my father for his appointment. Well, that happened last Friday. What was found on ultrasound was a mass just under the spleen. I spoke to his primary care physician. (after filling out the appropriate release forms) I also spoke to the physician and set my expectations. We are not going...
This was a recent commentary I made in the Evening Standard...
There was a post today on twitter from @HCDMagazine in regards to the $200M Proton Cancer Center that Emory Healthcare and Winship Cancer Institute broke ground on today. It will be 100,ooo+ sq ft facility with at least 5 treatment rooms and can accommodate about 2200 cancer patients/year. The question I have is in regards to healthcare in general. If we are moving from a world of fee for service (pay per click) towards a world...
I have been making observations that patients are simply waiting too long before they have the information that they need in order to make an informed decision. I have been receiving quite a few emails and phone calls talking to lots of patients and family members out there about their diagnosis and experiences. I thoroughly enjoy being able to touch base and to hear all of your own personal stories and triumphs. At the same time, it...
I just wanted to let everyone that I have not forgotten about the site, I am in the middle of the vital stages of construction for a new cancer facility. I am still answering emails and will be creating some new posts soon. I also was just awarded membership to the Healthcare Bloggers Code of Ethics. Member Perspective Confidentiality Disclosure Reliability Courtesy http://medbloggercode.com/ As always, if you or a loved one have any other questions, comments, or concerns; if you would like more information in...
Yesterday was the last day of the month of October and I thought it would be nice to end the month with the topic of Breast MRI for Breast Cancer. One has to remember, that with all of these tools, Ultrasound, Mammography, PET, MRI, Genetic Testing, and Hormone Testing that none of them on their own are the best diagnostic test, but in the correct combination based on each patients particular diagnosis, they can be essential...