Change doctors after surgery?

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DML
DML Member Posts: 17
edited June 2014 in IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma)

Anyone so frustrated with your doctor's office that you changed doctors after surgery.  My doctor's office is so incompetent - I wish I had listened to my gut feeling when I first walked into that office. I was asked to bring my films from another hospital - I told them the films were at their hospital breast center.  They said they would take care of them.  Day before initial appt, they called and asked me to pick up my films first from other hospital.  I told them they were at their breast center. They said they would take care of it.  When I walked in they asked if I had my films!  They went and got them from the breast center next door. I should have walked out. It has been a comedy of errors ever since.  They scheduled me for a wire needle localization of the lump in the middle of my breast when I was having a mastectomy.  When I asked Why do you need that?  They cancelled it - it wasn't needed.  I cannot get any straight answers.  Ask two people the same question and you are guarenteed two different answers. 

With that said - I am obviously fed up.  Has anyone changed doctors after the surgery?  How does one go about that?  I cannot see spending the next 5 yrs through possible chemo/radiation, etc - don't know yet (Surgery 2/11 drains out today - still no answers) - with this kind of frustration.  Isn't BC hard enough without dealing with this?

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  • shelloz1
    shelloz1 Member Posts: 405
    edited February 2009

    I changed surgeons after surgery, the doctor was such an idiot, I couldn't imagine continuing to see him. 

    My drain wasn't working, I kept telling him this, and that I was in pain, he said, don't worry about it, it's no big deal.  After the surgery, I noticed that there were gaps in between the staples, sorry to be gross, but there was something oozing, and I was in extreme pain.  When the surgeon came around to check, I showed him this, so he tried putting special tape on it to hold it together.  I left the hospital with gaps between the staples, he told me not to worry, it would heal within a short time.  When I came home, I was in horrible pain, the next day I went to the nurses center, they looked at it and were very surprised, but they called in the doctor (same one) and he said, put more tape, it will close.  Anyway, 2 weeks later, the gap was getting bigger, and finally the doctor said, well, I'm going to have to restitch you INCREDIBLE!  Now, I have a horrible scar, you can see the gap, and when I asked why it looked like this, he said "Better that than a hole"  Well, I looked at him in total disbelief, and I have NEVER gone back since.

    Don't continue going to your doctor, change immediately, he sounds incompetent, and you definitely don't want to trust someone like that.

    Good luck!

    Shelley

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  • DML
    DML Member Posts: 17
    edited February 2009

    Thanks Shelley, I am sorry you had this kind of experience with the surgical scarring. My experience is more frustration with the office staff than the doctor - but she is incompetent to maintain and incompetent staff in my opinion - makes her look bad.  Still I do not want to continue to deal with that office. 

    I am so new at this, I just don't know where to start.  I wondered if another surgeon would take me on after my doc already got the big bucks.  Would you recommend I call my GYN for another referral.  I don't know where to start in finding another breast surgeon.  

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  • shelloz1
    shelloz1 Member Posts: 405
    edited February 2009

    I don't live in the States, so I'm not sure how things work where you are.  I think it's your right to change surgeons, and I believe that another surgeon would take you on.  Ask your gyn or your oncologist for a referal,

    Feel free to ask any questions, I'll be happy to answer anything I can.  Hang in there, it's tough, but you will make it.

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  • DML
    DML Member Posts: 17
    edited February 2009

    Your cancer was similar to mine.  What was your protocol?  Chemo ? radiation ? herceptin? I haven't even met with or gotten a referral to an oncologist yet.  I have no idea what to expect and today I am told it will be at least another 2 weeks before I get any referral to onco or answer to any question. 

    Part of the reason for my frustration is I am in private practice as a massage therapist.  I need to know how long I will be out of the office.  I have told my clients April 1 but that is because I was lead to believe surgery and that was it - 6 weeks to heal.  Now everything is up in the air and in all fairness to clients who are waiting for me to return to massage them, I would like to tell them I won't be back until _________ whenever.  

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  • anianiau
    anianiau Member Posts: 182
    edited February 2009

    I changed surgeons--and hospitals--after my excisional biopsy. I didn't do that because of the surgeon; I did it because of some of the outpatient hospital personnel. The young man who came to take blood used hand sanitizer and put on gloves--and only then did he move my bed so that he could access my arm! The staff discharged me from outpatient surgery after I returned from recovery--they were too busy arguing among themselves--without giving any discharge instructions, then tried to cover it up when my husband called from home to ask.

    No, not everything was bad, in fact there were some excellent people. But I didn't think I could count on a good standard of care overall.

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  • shelloz1
    shelloz1 Member Posts: 405
    edited February 2009

    HI DML,

    My protocol might be different then yours, did you have a lumpectomy or Masectomy?  I did the following: 4 A/C (every 3 weeks) followed by 6 Taxol (weekly), 42 Rads and 1 year of Herceptin.  My last treatment was 1 year ago exactly.

    I don't understand why you need to wait 2 weeks for the Oncologist, if you are grade 3 and HER2 positive, they need to get you moving quickly into treatment.

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  • DML
    DML Member Posts: 17
    edited February 2009

    Bilateral mastectomies.  My doctor is out of town so I cannot get an appt with her and evidently no one else can set up the oncologist appt - I even offered to do it myself.  Must wait for "my" doctor. Her associate pulled my drains and was not helpful at all.  Period. 

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  • NancyD
    NancyD Member Posts: 3,562
    edited February 2009

    DML, at this point, your breast surgeon becomes less involved in your care unless they are also the plastic surgeon involved in reconstruction (I wasn't sure from your post). Your longterm care will be taken over by the oncologist, and it's their office and relationship that matters in the long run.

    I'd say be done with them, whatever little you have left to deal with, and when you have established a good relationship with your oncologist ask them for another referral, if you should ever need more breast surgery.

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  • otter
    otter Member Posts: 6,099
    edited February 2009

    I agree with Nancy.  My med onco is the one who is following my care, now that I've finished surgery and chemo and I'm taking an estrogen-blocker.  As she said the other day, she needs to keep track of me as long as she has me on a drug that can do me harm (i.e., Arimidex).

    OTOH, my surgical onco is the director of the breast health center where my cancer was dx'd.  They do routine mammograms and other imaging there, and they'll let me continue to go there for regular breast check-ups on my remaining breast as long as I want.  So, I get to see my surgical onco, too, but not because she did my surgery.  She's the alternative to the #$&!! GYN who said my lump was "fibrocystic tissue--nothing to worry about." 

    Once you're healed up and you meet your med onco, there shouldn't be any reason to have to go back to your breast surgeon.

    otter 

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  • jdeking
    jdeking Member Posts: 408
    edited February 2009

    You can also get referrals for new surgeons through ACS and your insurance plan, if needed. I had to change onc's after an appointment when my hare-brained onc examined my fresh lumpectomy, then proceeded to tell me I would not need radiation since I had a mastectomy. His hands had been on the girls 5 minutes before! This was not the only problem, but an essential one.

    I found a new onc on the ACS site and called myself. Your insurance may require an official referral, which your PCP can do for you. There is no reason to be unhappy with a doctor or their office! I hope your onc turns out to be much better than the surgeon.

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  • emerald1773
    emerald1773 Member Posts: 8
    edited February 2009

    I was happy with my surgeon but not with my oncologist. She'd promised a laundry list of things pre-surgery, including an advanced directive. When she failed to supply ANYthing - no answers, literature, advice - nada, I called. She was at a conference somewhere, didn't call me back the week she returned etc.

    After surgery when I saw her and brought it up, she was defensive and finally said, "well, didn't you get it from the Navigator on the day of surgery?". As though I was in any position to write an advanced Directive while I'm being wheeled to tests and surgery.

     I had a bit of problem changing (Georgetown doesn't like to do it) but I'd discussed it with the original MD so they've scheduled me to see someone recommended by my Radiation Oncologist (who I also like fine).

    I hope yours works out and that my new oncologist is better.

     If anyone has hints about how to approach the new doctor on the first visit so SHE'S not feeling 'in the middle", please let me know. I see her on Tuesday (3/2 I think).

    Tks, Linda

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