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Doctors

As you know, my first oncologist at Kaiser, decided to move to Corpus Christi, TX, to be close to his family. I was devastated. I had spent the better part of 3 years training him about mantle cell lymphoma, and developing a great rapport with him. He was even willing to authorize the initial treatment that I wanted, which was Rituxan alone.

I was very comfortable and content.

Unfortunately life is never fair, and last March I was forced to choose another oncologist. I chose one against the advice of one the nurses I respected a lot at Kaiser, and now I am wondering why I did that.

Just last week I had my usual blood test, and as normal, his [my new oncologist] nurse called relatively promptly with the results. This time was a little different because I forgot to ask what my platelet count was. (The platelets along with my hemoglobin, are two things I watch even more closely than my lymphocyte count, as I have been told that a reduction in platelets is the first sign of bone marrow failure.)

So I had to get in contact with the doctor again to get the results, but rather than call, I decided to email the doctor, hoping that would be faster. Surprisingly he responded fairly quickly, but with an extremely short and incorrect response.

WBC 98.4

Remember, I asked for my platelet count. So I wrote back again, explaining that I already had the WBC count, but needed the platelet count. Again he responded fairly quickly with the following response.


Hb - 12.9, platelets - 96


I was shocked, to say the least. My platelet count was 235 last month, and now it dropped to 96! In my mind, that meant I had best start treatment now, and I would have hoped that it would have sparked the same concern in my oncologists mind. But it didn't!

After I calmed down I realized that my lymphocyte percentage was 96 also, and suspected that my oncologist, being in a hurry, made an error. I immediately wrote him back, expressing concern that after reporting a platelet count of 96, he didn't think treatment was immediately necessary, while also pointing out that he may have copied the wrong result.

Eventually I got the correct result (224), which is well within the normal range (140 - 400), and about where it has been for the last 4 years.

Still it seems he could have paid a little closer attention, plus he didn't even apologize for the error. If he'd only spent a few extra seconds reading my email, and thinking about his response, he could have saved himself a lot of extra time.

He seems like a nice guy, and does review the various reports I do give him on MCL i.e. treatments etc. with interest, but now I am just not sure how responsive he will be to my needs. Does he really have concern for his patients, or is this simply a job to him?

I guess I'd better go back and talk to that nurse again about what to do.
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