Tough news today
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Rick, I know this is no consolation but the same thing happened to Teddy. We were told by the Radman, who is tops in his field (must be a field tending to sheep) last September that there were 2 new tumors. One was near the kidney and the other was outside the liver? But they were so very small he wanted to watch them at another Scan in December. December Scan he showed, one had shrunk the other was stable let’s still watch. Oh and both were now under the liver?? March Scan what do you know? There was only 1 tumor and it was now at 4 1/2 cm and it was near the right kidney at the top right outside the intestine. Wow! those suckers really grow and shrink (on their own) and change places. We were so angry! I was sitting about a foot from his face (that I wanted to punch) and asked how all this happened. He actually looked me in the eye and said nothing and I swear there was a smirk on his face. My first thought was damn, I didn’t bring a man in here with just a pimple on his face! I honestly felt he had never looked at the Scan. No answer?
Have you talked to your Radman about what happened? Just curious. Needless to say we are seeing a surgeon Tuesday to see if surgery can even be done due to Teddy’s Whipple and all his rearranging inside. Oh and we are switching Radmen.
I know you are in a more serious situation and have everything crossed that you hear some decent news. We are thinking about you.Thanks for all of the replies. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to have the repeat CT scan done yesterday at Mayo. My morning ERCP ran long and I had some pain management problems afterwards so I missed my time to get the CT scan done. Soooooo – I am staying here until Monday and have both the CT scan and a consult with Dr. Gores as soon as those results are in.
I know that Dr. Gores has several recommendations for treatment if this is all confirmed but he didn’t go into much detail yet until he has this confirmed.
I did go through my prior reports and re-read all of the Radman’s comments and even looked at the images on CD. (How convenient that I had to hand carry all of this to Mayo and they just made copies and handed the others back to me). After I learned what to look for on these scans, even *I* could see this area on the scan going back to November. I know that I’m no radiologist, but sheesh the guy should have asked for a 2nd opinion if he had any doubts about it. This is my life he was messing with.
I have very strong feelings about goiong through 6 months of chemo treatments that would obviously have been stopped as being ineffective. But since the scans were not read properly, the oncologist continued on. What if a different chemo combination would have worked better? What if this mistake costs me valuable time with my family? What if I endured chemo treatments when they truly were not necessary (or on the wrong combo?)
I’m not the kind of person who likes to “lawyer-up” but I certainly think I have a right to know what this radiologist was doing or when the last time he had his eyes checked, etc.
Rick
Rick, this is BEYOND outrageous. Give us this radiologist’s name and a gang of us will come and string him up for you!!
Dr. Gores is really one of the world’s top experts on cc, so you know you’re in good hands there. What recommendations did he have for you?
Praying for comfort and healing for you–
Kristin
Rick–I can’t say on this forum what I’d like to do with your radiologist for you. Let us hope hope for you that there has been an error at the Mayo end, as you hope. I’m sure you know what course you may take to protect others from an incompetent radiologist.
My feelings on this go far, far beyond anger. I’ve been an AMA victim, too.
God bless you, and God help us all.
Rick,
I am sorry to hear of this and you have every right to be angry, very angry in fact. I wish that there was something that I could say that would help right now.
Gavin
Rick,
I too am angry and sorry to hear about this. Know that I am thinking of you and your family and hoping there is something to be done to resolve this current situation.
Darla
This is a sad story, awful really. We all do trust doctors, don’t we? What choice do we have? They are supposed to be the ones with knowledge and wisdom and they can pronounce words that would break our tongues. But the truth is – as there are lousy teachers, builders etc. there are also lousy doctors who just got by in the university… Problem is you can not tell based on appearance who you’re dealing with.
Thank you all for your support over this. I’m still at a loss for words to explain how upset we are about this. I don’t understand how a radiologist can miss this – and it takes only a few minutes for a hepatologist to find it. This is my life that they are playing games with – and that is exactly what they had to have been doing – playing games!!! I took out the CD and loaded it on my laptop to do side by side image comparisons. Even I can it sitting there over the last 3 scans.
I guess I should reserve my anger until after today’s repeat CT scan and the radiologists here at Mayo read it. And I can hope that maybe these spots were just some kind of artifact in the same spot on all 3 previous scans.
Rick
Rick, I just saw your post about the radiologist missing a tumor…..Words can’t express how sorry I am for your difficulty right now. This is what these people (the radiologists) get paid for. The thing that they do is read tests, and then to mess up so huge like this is unbelievable.
I’ll be praying that Mayo will have a good game plan for you and that there will be something that they can do for you. Like you said, Mayo is a good place to be.
All my thoughts and prayers to you, your family AND your doctors.
Linda Z.
Rick:
My heart goes out to you. What can I say except that perhaps you need to find another radiologist or at least request that this particular radiologist does NOT get to read your scans. I just recommended that my daugher (who is an RN) take her young 3 yr old son to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee for a 2nd opinoin because I personally do not trust the radiologists here in Green Bay. This was after a local radiologist read one of my husbands scans and reported that the “Gallbladder is grossly intact and no abnormalities seen”, now mind you that my husband had his gallbladder removed on June 16th, 2008. So what the heck was that radiologist lookin at? It certainly was NOT his gallbladder because he does not have one!
In Tom’s case missing that the gallbladder was not there was not such a big deal, but missing a 4cm tumor, that is unacceptable for sure!
Have they discussed radiation for the tumor? Radiation killed Tom’s inoperable tumor after 28 treatments, now he is following up with Chemo. But, keep this in mind, if the tumor is blocking a bile duct, you may want to discuss having the doctors put an internal stent if before radiation (if possible) because if radiation kills the tumor, it turns into scar tissue and getting an internal stent in afterwards may not be possible (as in Tom’s case). Or at least the local doctors have not been able to get a stent in. One more go round at Mayo coming up for Tom and if they are unable to get the stent in then we have to accept that it simply cannot be done.
Best of wishes coming your way that they find something to do for your situation.
Go with God and KEEP KICKIN’ THAT cancer.
Margaret
Rick, what can we say. This is a real travesty and just should not happen to anyone. We are hoping that Dr. Gores will come up with a game plan. @*^@** Sending lots of prayers and hugs your way.
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