Screw the oncologist at UK who doesn't give a damn if her patients are miserable, hurting, or even dying!

I reached out to a kidney cancer support group for recommendations for oncologists here in central KY. One was highly recommended so I contacted his office to see if he was taking new patients, worked with kidney cancer, and was willng to work with our oncologist at MD Anderson.

Meanwhile, we met with our primary care doctor this morning to see if we can get to the bottom of John's chest/rib pain since his oncologist doesn't give a damn... Dr. H (our primary care)is tough to get an appointment with but he'll do whatever it takes for his patients. We'd messaged him over the weekend about the pain & as soon as we arrived this morning, they took John straight back to x-ray where they zapped him every which way checking his ribs. Then Dr. H went over the films with a fine tooth comb with us before forwarding them on to an actual radiologist. And then, he went over John with a fine tooth comb, checking lung function, heart function, pressing on ribs til he found the exact one that puts him thru the roof, etc. He thinks John may have pulled a muscle away from a rib back when he was having dry heaves from the new chemo back at the beginning of November (before the pharmacist at UK - not his oncologist, the head pharamcist - reduced his dosage) and then when he started coughing (also due to the chemo meds), it just escalated it... And due to the pain, he's not breathing as deeply as he should which is causing part of the lung to collapse... which makes it hurt worse. So.... he's prescribing cough meds with pain meds mixed in to see if he can get some relief AND get his breathing back closer to normal. And if he's not better by Monday, he'll arrange for a CT scan to be done to get a better look at that area.

(Now the issue is getting the prescription filled. ***sigh*** WalMart said they didn't have teh meds & when asked when they could get it, we got blank stares....Oooookay... Called Kroger & they have them but WalMart says they can't transfer the prescription because it's controlled & Dr. H's office says they'll have to leave a message for him to do it because it's controlled & his nurse can't - this after arguing that it had already been called in to WalMart.... IT'S NEVER EASY!!!!!!)

Meanwhile, we talked to Dr. H about the issues with UK and he agreed, said he has NOTHING good to say about the Markey Cancer Center there, that they're more interested in research & numbers than they are in patients. He recommended another oncologist he personally knows & who he says is "the smartest man he knows" and who he knows coordinates care with MD Anderson. He even called up & submitted a referral right there & then!

Now when John was first diagnosed, we had three different doctors referring him to a specific oncolgoist at UK. It took MONTHS and then we got dumped on a different oncologist, one with no practical experience & who barely speaks English, who's response to every question was "I'll present this to the tumor board and see what they say".... The same one who won't return calls, ignores patient's pain & side effects, etc.

BOTH OF THE OTHER ONCOLOGISTS WE CONTACTED/WERE REFERRED TO CALLED BEFORE NOON TODAY! Turns out, they're in the same clinic & are both willing to treat John & work with MDA! We opted to go with the one Dr. H recommended & they took all John's info & said we shoudl hear back from the scheduler later today or tomorrow to set the appointment up!

How unreal is that??? After all the crap we've been thru with UK and not being able to get appointments even as an established patient.

Right now, it's looking like this will be a very good move for us. It can't be worse...