Canceling Onc. Apt.

g...I've done exactly what you did, cancelled the peripheral visits and just stuck to the absolutely necessary-for-safety ones. Last year, I cancelled a big one because they said they didn't need another mammo or MRI and I thought "WTH good can you do me then?" So my rule of thumb is that I'll see the medical or surgical onc every 6 months as long as they're getting some views and some blood. I never saw my rad onc at all once rads were over....didn't make sense to me.

I've got a big one coming up next month and I've had a cough, so you know what I'm thinking. I'm gonna keep this one.....

~Marin

I think I am the opposite of all of you.  I am now on 4 month visits with med. onc. and 6 month visits with rad onc.  No longer see surgeon.  On the one hand I am glad they are spacing me out but on the other hand, once I see them and I leave the office I feel like I am charged up for another few months.  Well, until I have some ache or pain and then I think it's mets.  My oncologists do not do scans or bloodwork unless there are symptoms.  Sometimes I wonder if I should fake symptoms just to get more tests.  But then that would only make me more anxious.

Wow Barb,

Im just a little over a year into this bc stuff and at my last appt in Oct they graduated me to every 6 months....he said we would stay with this for another year then he would cut me loose to yearly after that...I think it would drive me crazy to see them every 3 months!!!

Little g I hope all the posts are some comfort to you.

We all know what it feels like and the anxious feeling just before blood tests and the oncology appt. is huge.

I just had my oncology appt. Friday and I was a nervous wreck.

My BP was was up when the nurse checked it just because I was where I was. 

Honestly though, I am so very grateful to be seen by my oncologist.

Even with the nerves beforehand I too feel elated when I get good news which is what I got Friday. 

All my tests were fine.  I go back in 6 months. 

Any time I have questions I am able to email my doctor and he replies back within a day.  I get great comfort in that.

I hope your reluctance isn't insurance coverage related.

Anyway, I feel so fortunate I have a wonderful doctor looking out for me.

I hope you can turn your feelings around and embrace the solutions to your recovery and get to those very important checkups. 

Next month will be two years since I felt the lump.

I had a bilateral mastectomy, chemo and the entire boat load of side effects. 

I too focus on being healthy and my checkups sure do help as I walk out the door for another few months.

Little-g, I know the big issue with insurance.  Last year it wasn't.  This year is a whole 'nother ball game.

Why are they doing tests each time you go?  I mentioned to the PA that I had vetreous detachment and she responded by saying, let's take a look at your brain.  No one's looked at it lately have they?  I said no.  However, I still had my good insurance. LOL  That was last year.

As far as tests ALL OF THE TIME I would be NUTS!  That's just me.  I'm an anxious person anyway, and that would just send me through the roof!

Little-G, I just came back after posting and saw your last post.  You made me laugh.  YES, HOW COULD YOU FORGET THAT ONE!!!

Shirley

Sometimes I think all this tight coverage is CYA, and they are just used to doing it.

I went every 6 mos after dx for 2 years, esp since we were trying to keep me on tamox and treating side effects with different meds.  My onc only does liver studies.

I graduated to yearly after that.  Plus getting a mammo yearly on the remaining breast.

It is really overkill unless you've had an agressive cancer or close margins on a lump., IMO.  and you know I got my medical degree from a gumball machine last year.

In this case, I'm glad we have socialized medicine. It costs me nothing to see my onc..$7 fee that lasts for 3 months and I can see any type of onc in the cancer center for 3 months without getting a new form. I can see my surgeon for free because he is part of my "HMO" but I have decided it was a waste of my time (and his). I never went back to the rad doc after I finished rads. Never liked him and he was useless.

However, I am over 2 years out since diagnosis and am now on the "every 6 months plan". Although she asks for no blood tests and no scans except for yearly mammo, I am happy to see her and keep a rapport with her so that if I should need her, she will not have forgotten me. I don't get nervous if I have no symptoms. I just feel it keeps her up on me, and my other medical issues I have. She writes them all down and I feel this is important. She also does a good manual breast exam and I feel she does it better than I do.

I'm appalled, as I've said on other threads, about the insurance situation in the States (I'm American living outside of America, though). I know that I have a young cousin (24 years old) who has no health insurance and can't see a doctor for a cough because she can't afford it. I think that stinks. So far, nothing serious has happened to her but for all of you that have been diagnosed with bc..it's appalling to hear that some of you don't go for tests, visits or the like because it's so expensive. If I had to pay for all my visits and tests, I wouldn't go so often either. I'd never be able to cover the costs and still eat.

I finished chemo (A/C) in May, 2007 and have seen the med onc once for the one-month checkup, when they DID do blood work, then again early this month, when there was NO testing.  I asked about it and my onc said I would be "followed" but there would be no testing of any sort except for mammos yearly. 

When I questioned having to see her again, since I'm beeing seen by the bs and my pcp, she said if I didn't see her at least once a year and something happened in, say, year 8 or 10, how would she know who I was?  Huh?  Anyway, she consented to seeing me once a year instead of every 3 or 6 months as long as my bs and pcp were examining me.  They, BTW, do nothing but a feel up and a how are you. 

So, I guess I will go along with the once a year thing with her, once a year with the bs and once a year with the pcp, probably staggering them for the benefit of the booby feel up.

I really don't want to go, either, but feel I need to maintain a life-line in case there is some wonderful, new development in diagnosis/treatment of bc.  I want benefit of that.

BTW, my blood pressure bumps up when I visit the oncs.  Anywhere from 160 to 190 over 80.  At other times, like at the pcp and regular checks, it's very normal, the last reading at 126/74.  It's even been 115/70 recently.  So, no BP meds for me.  Go away, meds.

Tina

i've been cancelling appointments right and left.  i did see my onc this month (after they called me when i missed an appt).  he said i really should go see my radiaction onc for the 1-year visit, which should have occurred in december, but i'm not.  it seems unnecessary.  i was also disappointed to learn i have to see him every 6 months as long as i'm on arimidex.  once a year seems good enough, if i'm not having problems.  i talked him into prescribing my asthma meds for me so i could skip my GP doctor visit.  I wonder if my onc would give me a pap in 6 months?  LOL.

i will go in for my mammo and ultra sound, but other than that, i'm going to be noncompliant for a while.

I will be a sort of dissenting voice.  When I had BC in 98 it was just a lumpectomy and rads.  My surgeon promptly left for Saudi Arabia so I was followed up by my radiation onc for years while on tamox.  I don't remember the frequency, 6 months for a while then yearly.  He was the one who had the pleasure of telling me that I had BC again in the other breast.  After another round of BC and radiation plus chemo the rads doc and I decided that we didn't need to see each other anymore.  It was an amicable breakup. 

I tried to have a similarly friendly parting from my surgeon when I saw him 6 months ago and got good news about my right mammo (the more recent side) and he ordered mammos of both sides in 6 months.  I said I didn't have to see him because I would be seeing my medical onc shortly after the mammos.  I think he was a little offended. 

I did see him again, a few days ago, after I saw the medical onc.  The mammos that he ordered showed yet another tumour.   I don't think he remembered he was offended.  We joked (really) and decided on a bilateral mast.

I don't remember jack either gsg, but as I recall you and I were kind of synchronous (sp?) on my last round.  Don't cancel too many appts.

I really don't want to scare you - but get checked regularly OK?

Hmmmm....no one suggested I had to continue seeing my surgeon or rad onc.  I had a mast with no reconstruction.  My med onc checks my remaining left breast and right chest and pokes around on my tummy and checks for nodes.  I'm glad I don't have to see all the other doctors.  I see my primary every six months and gyn once a year.  That's enough!

Shirley

Oh, and I see the dentist. 

Levogs, how do they do a mammo without breasts?  I can see doing the US.

My onc only does blood work once a year.  But my primary twice a year because of meds I'm on.

Shirley