Sunday, July 22, 2001
CATs, PETs and MRIs - Getting to know your scans
posted by Karen Weber Sunday, July 22, 2001
Monday, July 23, 2001
Long-term results of neoadjuvant radiation therapy for breast cancerNon-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in chemoprevention of breast and prostate cancer
posted by Karen Weber Monday, July 23, 2001
Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Clinical Trials Can Be a First Step, Not a Last ResortBreast Cancer and Genetic Screening
Accuracy of sentinel node biopsy in predicting nodal status in patients with breast carcinoma
Sutter Home for Hope - the winery is launching a campaign with bottles adorned with pink ribbons and pink corks. Which is all very nice, other than the fact that drinking alcohol is one of the risk factors for developing breast cancer.
I was scheduled to have my 6 month follow-up MUGA scan yesterday, but it didn't happen. My job was to show up at 9:30 am. I did my job. That's when things hit the fan. The doctor's office had faxed over the order for the test, but it was unsigned. The hospital registration department said an unsigned order is against state law (and I would hope so! they are injecting you with radioactive material!). But the doctor's office said that they've never had to sign the orders before. And they showed me copies of the orders for my 2 previous MUGA scans as proof - unsigned. So apparently the hospital was breaking state law in the past by accepting unsigned orders. That doesn't mean the doctor's office shouldn't have known better anyway. And the hospital should have notified docs that they were changing their policy. And the hospital, when it received the unsigned order for my test, should have contacted the doctor then instead of waiting until I was sitting there. In short, everyone was wrong, no matter how strongly they were protesting otherwise.
You know the thing that really irks me about the whole thing? The people at the hospital were so busy covering their butts and yelling at the people in the doc's office - and vice versa - that it never dawned on anyone to apologize to the patient who rescheduled things and drove half an hour to get there on time for the test. Nor did any of them seem to have any inkling of what it takes for the survivor of a major life-threatening illness to prepare emotionally for a test like this. I mean, come on! This is not someone coming in for a routine check up, or someone who is still innocent about their mortality. This is someone who has faced death and is still engaged in a staring contest with it. Someone who didn't sleep very well the night before the test. Someone who was more than a little bit stressed about being there at all. A little compassion, in the form of simply saying "I'm so sorry for your inconvenience" or "I know this is hard for you to put this off" would have gone a long way. The closest anyone came to that was the gal at reception telling me that the mess was not my fault. Not my fault?! Well, doh. Of course it was not my fault. What kind of dumb thing was that to say? I left without ever losing my temper or saying anything angry, but it took a great deal of self-control on my part.
And then when I got home, the guy from the Nuclear Med department calls me to ask why I didn't show up for the test. Apparently the reception department never notified him that they had sent me home. He was at least understanding why I wasn't happy about being turned away. He's done MUGAs for cancer survivors before. He knows the score. He said he was going down to reception to let them have a piece of his mind about it.
In the meantime, the doc's office is supposed to be rescheduling the test. So far, they haven't done so.
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Wednesday, July 25, 2001
Chemoprevention of breast cancer - A joint guideline from the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care and the Canadian Breast Cancer Initiative's Steering Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Care and Treatment of Breast CancerSend a breast health awareness card at Yahoo
posted by Karen Weber Wednesday, July 25, 2001
Thursday, July 26, 2001
Positive Thinking, Faster RecoveryHER-2 as a Prognostic, Predictive, and Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer
Fatty acid composition of erythrocyte membranes linked to breast cancer risk
OncoLink MD//2B: Breast Cancer - written as a primer for med students
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, July 26, 2001
Friday, July 27, 2001
My Breast Cancer & Recovery... - by a sweet FIN angel, KeriMAMM.com - a magazine about breast cancer
Upside of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer outweighs downside
Bone Marrow Biopsy and Bone Scan To Detect Skeletal Metastases
Medicinal use of cannabis
posted by Karen Weber Friday, July 27, 2001