files?

Brenda,

I strongly encourage you to get and keep copies of all your records, everything that blackjack listed. I was first diagnosed with bc in 1986 and had a mast and chemo.  I didn't get copies of any of my reports except for the labs from my checkups with my onc after I finished chemo.  In 2002 I found a lump in my remaining breast and to no one's surprise it was a new primary.  I had another mast, chemo, and radiation.  My surgeon from 1986 had retired so I went to a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer and I also went to a new oncologist, one that my new surgeon recommended.  Both new doctors requested copies of all my records from my first bout with bc.  My former surgeon's partners were still practicing so I had no problem obtaining copies of everything in my former surgeon's his files, but I ran into a roadblock when I attempted to get my old oncology records.  My former oncologist had switched to a new group, but left old records behind.  When I requested my records, after a couple of weeks of getting the runaround, I was finally told my records had been destroyed because they were so old.  Yes, they were 16 years old, but breast cancer can recur even 20 years later (although it usually doesn't, thank goodness).  The only record I had from eight months of chemo was a handwritten page of notes that was in my former surgeon's files.  It had the correct dates of my treatments and abbreviations for my chemo drugs, but didn't have dosages or any other details.  It didn't even have my name on it.  The lack of an official record of the drugs and dosages made a difference in my new oncologist's choice of chemo regime.  He wanted to give me more Adriamycin, but couldn't because he didn't know how much I'd had previously.  I learned my lesson and got copies of everything the second time around.  I hope I don't have to deal with this a third time, but if so, I've got copies of everything.  It's a good thing, too, because I learned recently that my second surgeon relocated to another state.  

Sandy