My mother had a mammogram, which came back stating that she needed additional testing. Her physician called her and ordered an ultrasound to further diagnose any suspicious areas. Seems pretty by-the-book so far, doesn't it? Well, now is not the time to get too confident on physician follow up or referals. As a side note, she has Medicare as her primary insurance and Blue Cross secondary. Not a HMO or Medi-Caid type of insurance that would need to go through a lengthy referral/authorization process to order tests.
My mother had the ultrasound, then nothing. No call from her doctor or the radiology clinic where she had the ultrasound. Makes you say hummmm, what's going on?
After close to after two weeks have lapsed, my sister and I convinced her that to call her doctor's office to find out what's going on. She finally called and was told that she had a suspicious area and needed a breast biopsy.
Now chapter two of the waiting game begins. Her doctor was going to send in a referral to a place to have this done. Another week passes and my mother hasn't heard anything. She calls to the office where she had her ultrasound and they don't have any orders. She calls back to the doctors office and the doctor "blames" this on the the new computer system that she's using. Personally, I don't see how that factored into anything, but the doctor says she'll send the order to a town thirty miles north of where she lives for the biopsy.
Chapter three: A couple weeks have passed again and there is no word from the biopsy office. My mother is eighty-three years old, and is under the impression that the radiologist needs to review her previous films first, and just figured that everything must by "okay", since no one called her. My mother finally called them and, my sister called them and they both get the run-around. I finally get frustrated, (I live 600 miles south of my mother), and call her primary care doctors office. I tell them that someone has dropped-the-ball and nothing has happened. This message miracuously gets to her doctor and gets the ball rolling. Next thing we know, the place where she is supposed to have the biopsy have the order and have her scheduled.
To make a long story short, the biopsy comes back positive for breast cancer and she gets referred to a breast specialist who does a lumpectomy. After the lumpectomy she has eight weeks of radition, and now is on an oral cancer medication. And most importantly, she seems to be doing pretty well.
I'll reiterate the moral of this story. Like I said in the beginning of this blog;
You are the best advocate
for your Medical Care!
I hope that you or your loved ones never have to go through something like this, but if you do, assume nothing. If you don't hear back from your physicians office, make the call. Don't assume that they will call you. You need to speak up and be proactive.
