Changing medical oncologists 4 years after diagnosis/treatment

Hi Texas,

Sounds like it might be time for a new doctor! To find a new doctor in your area, it might be helpful to check out the main Breastcancer.org site's page on Deciding Where to Go for a Second Opinion.

Hope this helps and good luck to you!!

--The Mods

Texas I'm about to have to change ALL my doctors since my current insurance didn't renew their contract with the treatment center/hospital etc where I was treated. I can't afford to pay out of network prices. I hoping my DH's company has some other option but it doesn't look good… or I land a job before April when my next appointments start.

Change happens all the time. These doctors gain and lose patients for many reasons. I hope you find a good one.

Yep, go.  You need to be able to trust your dr and this one doesn't seem trustworthy.  

Good grief! My last onc visit, he grumbled at me because I had failed to give him my starting cholesterol numbers. Both my docs are very on top of monitoring bones and cholesterol while I am on femara. They also monitor clotting risk and a couple of other things that I forget now.

Like yours, they are not all that into diet and exercise, but they do support my efforts at least.

Get another doctor.

Texas:  I hope you have good luck on your journey to find someone competent & caring.  It is so bad with my onc that I have decided not to even ask any questions when I do see her, and just save my questions on stuff for the internist.  Hugs, Shelly

Texas that's awesome. My gut says you have no where to go but an improvement.

I too found out some new today too. My insurance and treatment center started negotiating again… so they may work something out. I think I might just have to play the lottery today. Sounds like a good vibes day for everyone.

Texas, what points did your new onc make, specifically? 

I know I'll need to be vigilant for the rest of my life--regular dr. visits and testing, lose weight, exercise faithfully, eat healthy, limit the wine to a couple of glasses a week--anything else?

Texas, thanks for reporting back. I was planning anyway to ask my onc about long-term femara use, but good to know.

As far as chemo consequences, I say "la-la-la-la-la" and hold my ears . It scares me silly, but I really don't want to think about it.

LOL, Momine, about the long term chemo risks--when you're looking at stage iii, I think the risks of not doing chemo are so much higher (and sooner) that it's not like it's much of a choice anyway, so I prefer to not think about them!

Elizabeth, that "poison" meme drives me insane, as does the "my sister/mother/neighbor died from chemo."

I know that people do die from complications of chemo sometimes. However, in most cases, when you start questioning these people, usually the patient in question was stage IV and most likely died from cancer, unfortunately, in spite of the chemo. Now I do think it is highly debatable whether it really serves any purpose to put terminal patients on rough chemo right up till the end, but that is a very different discussion. Personally, I imagine that I will be saying "no thanks" at that stage, but of course I can't know how I will actually feel and think about it if that day comes.

It also drives me nuts when people argue that chemo "doesn't work." When questioned, what they usually mean is that people die in spite of chemo, so it does not work 100%. Well, duh! That is like saying that aspirin doesn't work because although it made your headache go away yesterday, now you hurt again. And again, there are cases where the cost/benefit of chemo doesn't work. In my case, however, chemo has, statistically at least, vastly increased my chances of still being around in 5 and 10 years.

But yeah, an actual cure would be nice.