Follow the Money

$395--that's what the 30 minute "consultation" with the cardiologist cost. Unbelievable! Now I'm even more mad about the merry go round that doctors around here prefer to send cancer survivors on when they seek care.

And, more than the money, I resent the high cost of my time. That's worth something too. I have to fit any dr. appt. in around caring for my child and trying to work part time. I want one appt., actually in this case I only wanted one scan.

Instead I had to find time for two dr appts and two scans. And, to move ahead and find out what the odd feeling in my chest might actually be since it isn't my heart, my onc says I need to come in for an appt. with him!

Unbelievable.

I'll be checking out other onc options in the new week. Honestly from what I've seen, once you have cancer you inherit a part-time job keeping your healthcare and insurance working right, likely for the rest of your life. Let me stress this is non-paid and definitely not volunteer.

I'll keep you posted.

Taking Heart

The news out of the annual breast cancer meetings is that the A of ACT chemo and Herceptin are each bad for the heart.

It's enough of a problem that some doctors recommend a switch from the A to another chemo drug combination before Herceptin.

Over the last few months I've noticed some odd feelings in my chest--like a rubber band snapping--about once a day at no particular time. It just feels odd, so of course it got me wondering, "Could something be up?"

I read "But Doctor I Hate Pink's" blog about having read the dosing info for Herceptin (which I've never done) and found that the manufacturer recommends every six month followup on the heart for at least two years after Herceptin treatment ends.

So I decided to report my chest pains and get a followup test. I had one after finishing Herceptin, but none since, even though that last muga scan showed my left ventricle ejection fraction (lvef) at 48 (50 is lower level of normal; better is 55 and up).

I'm still at 48. Before chemo et. al. my lvef was in the 60s, so I'd say 48 is a fair drop. Some of this heart function loss is supposedly recoverable, but it doesn't look like it's going that way for me, at least not almost 2 years past ending Herceptin and chemo treatment.

They did an ultrasound on my heart to see where I'm at; now I'm getting a muga scan to make sure the number is correct and then going to see a cardiologist for a consult.

Swell--is there a doctor and specialty that I'm not going to get to visit on this cancer parade?

I'll keep you posted.