Progress?

November 14. I get a phone call from UCSF…finally. But it isn’t Dr. Rugo’s office, it is Dr. Ewing’s—the oncology surgeon. An appointment is scheduled for Friday, November 30 at nine in the morning.

Me. But, I haven’t seen a general oncologist yet. I’m still waiting to hear from Dr. Rugo.

No problem, the nice young man tells me.

Me. If I still don’t have an appointment with Rugo by the time I see Ewing, can Ewing refer me to someone.

Of course, he says.

So. I send an email to Rugo’s scheduler letting her know I now have an appointment with Dr. Ewing. And I suggest that it might be best if Rugo referred me to another oncologist, or I could ask Dr. Ewing to refer me to someone when I saw her.

The response. Lana, I could place you on dr. rugo’s schedule for Dec 18^th at 4PM, however, will still need all your records from initial 1999 breast cancer diagnosis first. (core bx, surgical path) Once I have these, we could schedule with dr.rugo following your visit with dr.ewing. Dr.ewing will be able to speak w dr.rugo directly following this appointment. Please work on getting those original documents to me as soon as possible.

Are you kidding? I thought they had everything they needed. Really frustrated at this point. “Sigh” 

I scan and send what I have.

November 15. I call Dr. Wang’s office and ask them to send the records from 1999 to Dr. Rugo, which I had assumed they had already done. Waiting for a call back. The voice message says it could take 24 hours before I get a response. Really?

So frustrating and disappointing. 19 years ago UCSF was much more responsive. It felt like there was a sense of urgency. Not so much this time. I don’t get it. But that’s the way it is with everything these days. Am I a dinosaur? Maybe. All I know for sure is that I have cancer and no one seems to be in a hurry to figure out what to do about it except me. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

All you have to do is look straight and see the road. And when you see it, don’t sit looking at it—walk. —Ayn Rand