[Britbee]

Went to see the Doc Thursday 26/1/12. When another new face walked in I immediately told them I had issues I needed to address. It was a very nice lady called Cindy and she said she just wanted to go over some stuff about the DH chemo I was getting the next day first then I was free to tell her all my issues.
So all these fresh faces I have been seeing are not actual oncologists. There is apparently a shortage of oncologists in Calgary. There is way more cancer patients then oncologists, a fact which I find very sad, each oncologist has "helpers".
Most are Doctors in their own right but are like family Doctors or such. The lady I saw yesterday was a nurse with years of knowledge of breast cancer patients and she also had a Masters Degree in (I forget) something related. The actual oncologist meets with these people everyday and has knowledge of all his patients and gives orders for each which are carried out by his helpers.
Having found this out I still said my feelings about being passed around were still present and even if I saw just one of the helpers each time I would be more comfortable. She told me she would do everything in her limited power to make sure I saw the same person each time and made a note in my file. Another thing she mentioned was that my file was in disarray and she would take the time to put it in order. I mentioned again that different people had seen me each time so no wonder they did not know what was going on if the file was not in order.
Having said all that this lady was the most thorough I had seen since the actual oncologist and I felt better when I left after dealing with her. I was in there over an hour and was one of the last patients that day but she listened to all my concerns and addressed each one. I now have medicine to help me with that awful throat problem I had last time and she showed me my flow chart and told me I was in very good shape going into the next chemo.