I just left a "town hall" meeting with cancer survivors and co-survivors. One of the common threads was the dread of waiting. Wait for the doctor, wait to schedule a new test, wait for the results of that test, wait for surgery......"Hurry up and wait!"
I have been a registered nurse for 19 years and it seems all of medicine is hurry up and wait. In the case of breast cancer, especially for pathology, it is important to note that many of the histo chemical tests that are run on your tissue to determine ER/PR status, HER2 status and more actually take a full 72 hours to complete. In terms of diagnostic tests like the PET scan, CT scan, MRI etc, well, there is a queue that each of these diagnostics go into and get read by the radiologist. In a busy medical center, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands a day that are read by the radiologist. They are read by the radiologist, dictated, transcribed, loaded into the system and faxed to the referring physician who then must get the report and call you back. Of course, some systems and some physicians are much more organized at this than others. A long wait time can neither be interpreted as a good or a bad sign. It is usually just a sign of a very busy center.
I would say to you:
1) Be your own health advocte. Every human being makes mistakes and medical centers are run by human beings. Stay on top of your health care and ask questions and make phone calls. One does not have to act ugly to get attention. Just be persistent.
2) Ask if there is a patient advocate, social worker or navigator whom you can contact to rattle the cage if that is necessary. Thankfully in the world of oncology, navigators are more and more common and can be a world of wealth in terms of education and contacts for you!
3) Use this time to arm yourself with good, reliable, scientifically sound knowledge! Knowledge is power!
Look at your wait time as a positive in that you can make plans, make preparations, seek knowledge and find your advocates.
I truly believe, in the words of a wise man named Charles Swindoll, that attitude is everything. "Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." While absolutely no one asks for cancer and absolutely no one wants to wait, wait, wait, we can react positively and use the wait time to our benefit when possible.
Well, I sound like Polly Anna and believe you me, I was tired of waiting too! I wanted answers and I wanted them yesterday! Again, knowledge is power. Ask the question "when will I know?", "when can I expect to hear from you?", "who can I expect to call me?". These questions help arm you to know what to expect and when to expect it. Also, if you are too sick, appoint someone to be your advocate and ask the right questions for you.
Keep up the good fight, even in the midst of the "hurry up and wait!"
