At my Wits End

Having seen Dr George twice this week about the lumps/boils under my armpit and her attempts to communicate/speak with Dr Barrett's secretary, I made one more attempt to speak with Dr B's secretary myself this morning and again had to leave a voicemail message, so under my own initiative I went up to the Berkshire Cancer Unit at midday and asked to see someone about my lumps. Luckily as it was the end of clinic it wasn't very busy and I managed to see a new Consultant called Dr Fong. He was really nice, chatted about my history and then examined the lumps. He firstly decided to change the antibiotics I was on and gave me a card to send me for an ultrasound to see what was going on. Then he asked Barbara Gray (the clinical nurse in clinic) to contact Dr B's secretary to get me seen in Dr B's clinic on Monday.


Amazingly, Dr B's secretary answers her internal phone calls! When asked if I could be added to the end of the list she said that it was already full and that this wasn't possible. At this point Dr Fong piped up that this woman must be seen on Monday and that if there was any problems with adding me to the end of the list then he would speak with Dr Barrett. Yippee. At last, some action. I was happy with that because my next clinic appointment with Dr B was on Monday 15th and I didn't want to wait another week before my armpit was thoroughly looked at.


I went off to the ultrasound dept and was lucky to be seen within an hour (everything just seemed to go perfectly once Dr Fong had got involved). The radiologist said she could see a lot of fluid and decided to try and draw some off with a needle and syringe. It didn't hurt when the needle went in because the area is already numb. Unfortunately the fluid was very thick and so the radiologist only managed withdraw 15ml. It looked like chocolate milkshake! She said the images would be sent off to Dr Barrett and she would be able to discuss more with me on Monday.


When I got home there was a message on my ansaphone from Dr B's secretary saying that she had received the fax and two voicemail messages from my GP, Dr George and my voicemail message this morning. She went on to say that Dr Barrett felt it wasn't necessary to move my appointment forward and would see me on the 15th!! Unbelievable. Luckily this has been superceded by Dr Fong's request but what am I supposed to do to be seen and get some action. Today has only happened because I went up to the cancer clinic.