Getting good help these days, cancer edition.
April 15, 2011 4:17 PM Subscribe
Medicalized New Yorkers: How do you get a biopsy appointment fast?
THe details are boring and I don't want to go through them. Here's the jist. I have a 2 cm lump in my breast and an amazingly lax radiologist, who fantastically bungled my mammogram and ultrasound last week. I was reluctantly scheduled for a biopsy with him this coming monday morning as it was the fastest appointment I could get. This was after my primary care physician's staff spent all day trying to find anyone else to do the procedure at short notice. They couldn't, so we settled with him. But his office just called, at 6:30 on a Friday, right before Passover, to tell me that "an emergency came up" and he had to cancel the procedure.
Whatever. It seems unprofessional but I'll let it slide. The big issue is that I need to get this lump biopsied ASAP and I am back to square one. My lovely PCP and his staff will get to work on it Monday morning, but they haven't had the best luck hustling me in to an appointment at the last minute. I am hoping that MeFi denizens might have some suggestions, although I'm also aware that I may be grasping at straws here.
In case medical details are an issue, the mass has calcium deposits and is spiculated, so there is cause for concern. The mammo/ultrasound was last Tuesday. Today is Friday.
THe details are boring and I don't want to go through them. Here's the jist. I have a 2 cm lump in my breast and an amazingly lax radiologist, who fantastically bungled my mammogram and ultrasound last week. I was reluctantly scheduled for a biopsy with him this coming monday morning as it was the fastest appointment I could get. This was after my primary care physician's staff spent all day trying to find anyone else to do the procedure at short notice. They couldn't, so we settled with him. But his office just called, at 6:30 on a Friday, right before Passover, to tell me that "an emergency came up" and he had to cancel the procedure.
Whatever. It seems unprofessional but I'll let it slide. The big issue is that I need to get this lump biopsied ASAP and I am back to square one. My lovely PCP and his staff will get to work on it Monday morning, but they haven't had the best luck hustling me in to an appointment at the last minute. I am hoping that MeFi denizens might have some suggestions, although I'm also aware that I may be grasping at straws here.
In case medical details are an issue, the mass has calcium deposits and is spiculated, so there is cause for concern. The mammo/ultrasound was last Tuesday. Today is Friday.
I would hold out as best you can and let the PCP see what they can do. If there's no luck by Monday afternoon, you can formulate a plan with them for getting you an appointment somewhere on Tuesday. I'm not sure how effective it will be for you to just get on the phone and start making calls yourself--if only because they will need the report from your doctor to know exactly what procedure(s) you need done in order to schedule you.
I can imagine how super-scary this must be right now, especially going into a holiday, please try to take some comfort in the fact that you got bumped for an emergency--there's time to make sure this gets done right.
posted by thinkingwoman at 7:17 PM on April 15, 2011
I can imagine how super-scary this must be right now, especially going into a holiday, please try to take some comfort in the fact that you got bumped for an emergency--there's time to make sure this gets done right.
posted by thinkingwoman at 7:17 PM on April 15, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I called Beth Israel Breast Center this am and got the number of the pathologist who does biopsies. He answered his own phone and agreed to do the procedure within an hour. He also gave me the results immediately. They were not good, as expected, but now at least I can move on to the next step.
posted by Morpeth at 11:56 AM on April 18, 2011
posted by Morpeth at 11:56 AM on April 18, 2011
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Please tell them, of course, that you need an appointment ASAP.
posted by DMelanogaster at 6:06 PM on April 15, 2011