[2021-11-26] If Plan A doesn't work
Today, I had my fifth session with my cancer coach from the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. We've moved from chatting every month or two to having a conversation as needed. My coach checks in with me every three months to see how I'm doing and to ask whether a discussion is needed. Given my latest health issue, I decided that a call would be helpful.
My coach and I chatted about my surgery and the slow recovery process. I told her that today is the first day in more than a week that I have felt better than I did the day before. It truly feels like my body is healing. Enfin!
We spent the bulk of the hour-long chat discussing the value—when talking with our doctors—of understanding the options for dealing with a medical issue and what symptoms would signal a need to try a different approach.
I told my coach that when the issue of the itchy patch of skin on my bum first cropped up and my doctor prescribed a topical cream to address it, I wish that I had asked her: "When should I return if this solution doesn't resolve the issue?"
It's my experience that doctors start with the most obvious and common solutions to problems because such responses are often the most appropriate. But there is value in asking the doctor, "How would I know if Plan A isn't working and when should I come back to explore Plan B?"
If I had walked out of the doctor's office knowing what symptoms to watch for that would suggest the topical cream wasn't addressing the issue and the time frame in which to monitor the efficacy of that initial treatment, I might have gone back to see her sooner.
Granted, a few things happened in the interim: minor things like a pandemic and ovarian cancer! In the early days of COVID, most of us weren't having conversations with our doctors about seemingly mundane issues like an itchy bum, and fewer still were actually seeing doctors in person. And once I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in July 2020, all my attention was focused on that issue and avoiding any discretionary contact with others while I was immunocompromised.
But by April 2021, with chemotherapy behind me, I asked my doctor for a checkup. I raised a number of issues: interest in vaccines for shingles and pneumonia, a few aches and pains, and my itchy bum. It was at that appointment on April 24 that my doctor offered to refer me to a dermatologist. Four months later, on September 27, I saw a dermatologist, who performed a biopsy. A few days later, he called with the result: in situ squamous cell carcinoma. On October 20, I met with a colorectal surgeon, and on November 15, he removed the cancerous tissue.
The lesson I've learned from this situation is to ask my doctor three questions:
- What should I expect from the prescribed treatment?
- How will I know if it isn't working?
- When should I follow up with you about other options?
