Day 37 - Talk with another Doctor

I slept very well last night. I think it is still from the chemo. Especially the Phenergon. It is used as a pre-operation sleep inducer. That stuff put me right out. Yesterday, I remember watching the nurse change the IV to the Phenergon, then nothing for about 45 minutes. I think it must still be in my system. I have been off balance a few times today. But that might just be me.

The jerking around may have been the Paclitaxel. I need to ask about that, as that was the worse side effect. It seems to have worn off, and I had no trouble with it last night. Usually jerking is a sign of electrolytes problems. But it would not stop this quick if that was the case.

I called the Wound Care Lady and told her that it was now 11 days since she dressed my wounds last. She says that there will probably be nothing much to do. Last time she only had to put on big band aids. The compression is working to help heal the wounds.  I'll see her on Monday. Then Tuesday is blood test, and Wednesday is chemo again.

I keep thinking that I want a second opinion regarding the treatment I am getting from the Oncologist. Today I went to my local GP just down the street. I took all my PET pictures with me.

My GP's name is Nadia. She is where I go when I need small stuff looked at. She was the first to see the sores on my leg. She initially thought it wasn't to serious as I had had the one sore for about 15 years. She said if we had done a biopsy on that sore, we would have been fooled into thinking the new sores were also non malignant Basel cell melanoma. She sent me to a vascular surgeon, and that is where the whole cancer story started.

I was not sure why I wanted a second opinion from a GP. I should have wanted to go to another Oncologist. Surgeons want to cut out cancer, that is how they feed their families. Oncologist want to poison cancer, and the radiologists want to burn the cancer. All of those, are sort of guaranteed income for the relevant Doctors. If I die in a few months, they still made their money. They make a once off packet of money. My GP on the other hand will make more money if I live another 20 years. When I explained this to Nadia she agreed, and said that she has heard all that before.

Nadia then told me about her mother. Her mother is fighting breast cancer, for the second time in 3 years. Her mother recently told her almost the same thing about Doctors. Her mother felt that the care she received from Doctors, was proportional to the short term income potential. Her mother also said that in her day Police and Doctors were there to help. Now days Doctors are there for the money, and the Police are just organized crime.

Nadia said that radiation before surgery was a bad thing, so stay away from radiation till after surgery. She also said that some doctors are reluctant to do surgery after chemo, because a weak immune system means greater chance of sepsis. Regarding amputation, she said that if any cancer cells have spread, and are to small to be seen on the PET scan, then chemo should be started quickly before any surgery.
I told her about many web sites that say that Angiosarcoma if it has not metastasized yet, should be surgically removed quickly to prevent spreading. Why don't my doctors want to consider that? They want to wait 12 weeks, then only cut out what they can see. Surely amputation would be best, and done soon to prevent metastasis.

She said she would call around. She has friends who are surgeons that work on cancer patients. Maybe they don't know about amputation, but they have lots of knife time with cancer. They should be able to give good advise. She will call me back soon. She may send me to another oncologist. I told her that I didn't think Medical aid would pay for a second opinion, but I would gladly pay cash for a consultation.

The guy overhauling the beetle starter went away for the weekend leaving a note saying he will try to finish on Monday. Grr!
A friend of mine owns the beetle. He lets me have exclusive use of it. I talked with him about me getting a new car. He said to just do what I thought best. First I need to find a car I like. I will pay him and he will buy it in his name, and he will just transfer the money to the car dealer. It will technically be his car. He says he doesn't want to have both cars, so I should sell the beetle.  I need to fix it up first, before selling it.

So I will be transport-less all weekend. I will also have a problem with the wound care lady on Monday . 
But I now have enough cash to make problems like that disappear.