- Joined
- Apr 2, 2006
- Messages
- 11,214
I had to choose a new doctor last year when my prior GP moved out of the practice. I really like the doctor I ended up choosing - I like his approach re preventative medicine vs. treatment, and how well he explains things. He's fairly young, and his profile mentioned two young children. During our initial appointment of course we went over family medical history. When I mentioned that my younger brother had been treated for non-hodgkins lymphoma as a teenager, he revealed that he was just returning to practicing medicine after having undergone treatment for the same condition (as it happens, in the same teaching/research facility that had treated my brother 40 years earlier). He asked how my brother was doing, and I told him the truth - my brother had just been treated successfully for tonsular cancer. This is a fairly rare cancer, and his contracting it was probably related to either the cancer he'd had as a teenager, or to the very aggressive treatment they had used to treat the lymphoma. I could tell that my doctor was somewhat shaken by this news. When my brother was treated for the NHL way back when we were told that his chances of contracting some other form of cancer had increased - but it's one thing to process that in the abstract; quite another when you're faced with a possible real-life example.
Fast forward eight months or so, and it's time for me to see the doctor again. In the interim, my brother was diagnosed as having a very fast-growing squamous cell cancer growing in his tongue and throat. The cancer was removed last month in a successful but brutal surgery: it involved removing his tongue and larynx, and a permanent tracheotomy.
I need to schedule an appointment for some routine stuff, and I'm having second thoughts about seeing this doctor again. I know there is no way to predict whether his cancer will recur or the course his treatment will take. I know that my brother's initial treatment was extremely aggressive for several reasons (I understand it was summarized in a journal article) and that the treatment has been refined a lot in the intervening years. For all I know, my doctor may have undergone a whole different form of treatment. And of course he's a doctor, so he's even more aware than most that what happened to my brother has nothing to do with his situation.
Still, I'm afraid he might ask me about my brother. I really don't want to saddle him with the thought of what has happened in his case.
So - I'd appreciate your thoughts. What would you do if you were in my shoes?
Fast forward eight months or so, and it's time for me to see the doctor again. In the interim, my brother was diagnosed as having a very fast-growing squamous cell cancer growing in his tongue and throat. The cancer was removed last month in a successful but brutal surgery: it involved removing his tongue and larynx, and a permanent tracheotomy.
I need to schedule an appointment for some routine stuff, and I'm having second thoughts about seeing this doctor again. I know there is no way to predict whether his cancer will recur or the course his treatment will take. I know that my brother's initial treatment was extremely aggressive for several reasons (I understand it was summarized in a journal article) and that the treatment has been refined a lot in the intervening years. For all I know, my doctor may have undergone a whole different form of treatment. And of course he's a doctor, so he's even more aware than most that what happened to my brother has nothing to do with his situation.
Still, I'm afraid he might ask me about my brother. I really don't want to saddle him with the thought of what has happened in his case.
So - I'd appreciate your thoughts. What would you do if you were in my shoes?