The Comfort in Liking Your Doctors
The doctor came to the waiting area following the lumpectomy in my wife’s right breast to tell me what they had found. I was just sure that he was going to tell me, “We removed the entire tumor and there’s nothing more to worry about, so just go and have a nice life.”
He didn’t.
He said that they couldn’t get the entire tumor and that we would have to come to his office in a few days for the pathology report as to whether the cancer had spread. During that return appointment my wife asked him, “Is this serious enough to kill me?”
He was obviously very uncomfortable, but said that women in her situation have a 60% chance of living five more years. She was incredulous, “Only 60%??” At that point she passed out.
We will never know whether it was her low blood sugar or the doctor’s news that caused it, but we do know what happened next. Her sister and I rushed to help her come out of it and the doctor told us to let him know when she was back and then left the room! We weren’t too crazy about him after that.
We wanted a second opinion, so we went to a major, nationally-recognized cancer center that was over 100 miles from our home to get it.
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I agree with you. A good rapport with the doctor works psychologically well. It treats half of the disorder to success. It is nice that you found a nice doctor however at the end.
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