After a liver biopsy and colonoscopy I have a more official diagnosis: stage 4 colorectal cancer.
There’s a mass in my colon, and the genetics they found in the biopsy are consistent with colon cancer.
We’ve done a PET scan but haven’t seen the results yet, so we don’t know where the cancer has spread other than my liver and lung which we know from prior CT scans.
I’m moving forward with treatment (chemo) ASAP, but I’m also looking for referrals for where I should be seeking treatment and also looking myself. The doctors I work with now aren’t bad, but they are often in different “systems” unable to talk and coordinate with each other effectively.
I know from experience that a lot of the well regarded and well “metric’d” medicine suffers from a lack of cooperation and communication between people. My pain level is already at a point where I’m in bed most of the day and I have symptoms involving multiple organs which, in our medical system, often means having to seek advise from multiple parties who won’t speak to each other. I can’t be bouncing between experts that are trying to fax each other.
I’m looking for a place that has treatment, imaging, and the doctors and nurses who speak with patients under one roof operating together. I know these places exist, I just don’t know which ones I should be looking at and I don’t have any contacts that can speed up the referral process.
Anywhere in the country is on the table, as I’m already unable to resume regular home activities. My pain levels are at a point where I wouldn’t mind full time care, but I also have a lot of loving family members who have said they’d be willing to take care of me during this time so I could just rent something nearby treatment, as I have been recently.
I created another ../referalls for Pull Request submissions for referrals and hope to see more.