But I Want My Real Oncologist

I made a trip to Houston to visit my oncologist last week; it was just a standard "waiting and watching" kind of appointment. The blood tests were good–nothing to be concerned about. My platelets are a little low, some other cryptic stuff is high and I probably need to address some bone density issues. I had the beginnings of osteoporosis before I began chemotherapy and the treatments sped up that process. We’re not medicating now because I take a lot of medication already. I already take calcium with vitamin d, so I need to concentrate on getting more natural sources of calcium, in addition to addressing my anemia. These are small problems in the grand scheme of things. Thank you, kind friends, who were sending positive thoughts and prayers.

The seriously bad thing is that I won't be seeing my oncologist anymore. Ever. Unless I have some recurrence of the breast cancer. I get to see an "Advanced Nurse Practitioner." She seems like a very nice person and probably knows her business. My other meetings with nurse practitioners is that they don't necessarily have the level of information that doctors have. I have had wrong information imparted from my plastic surgeon's nurse practitioner, among others. Furthermore, I do not go to M.D. Anderson to see a nurse practitioner. It's expensive, it's grueling and I could see a real oncologist here.

The Department of Oncology needed to cut the budget and it was either we all see nurse practitioners or people were going to be laid off. The standard procedure was that patients saw the nurse, then the oncologist. All of that is gone now. The woman I saw said the oncologists were taking credit for their work. Hmm...maybe the oncologists were merely taking credit for their own work.

Obviously, I'm extremely unhappy with this turn of events. I'll have to make a decision about what to do now. Damn it.