"My nightmare day at the Marsden 2 December 2016"

I was so upset by the events of Friday December 2nd at the Marsden that I spent the night running to the loo. This is what happened:

I was put into a room in Outpatients at 2PM, shaking with apprehension about the result of the biopsy that had been taken on 24 November. I was promised that last Monday I would be sent all the scan/MRI reports but none had arrived. The receptionists at Outpateints could not find the reports that a member of staff had said they had left for me. I’d have liked to have seen something in black and white before seeing the oncologist.

Eventually a registrar and nurse came in and asked me masses of questions about myself that ought to have been on the NHS computer: my medical history – what pills I am on. Is the Marsden still in the 19th century? I have been on several CLCCG committees for years and we are always having meetings about why the NHS computers do not talk to one another.

After the registrar and nurse left at about 315pm I sat alone in this same room until 430! It was like torture. Then a Dr came in and obviously had no interest in me – spoke to me slowly and coldly as if I were a zombie. I told the Dr that I expected to have a conversation as I’d been kept in solitary confinement for 3 hours but the Dr seemed about as interested in me as if I were a shoe saleswoman. Off the Dr went. The registrar started talking to me about starting chemo but frankly I felt like leaving, not coming back and letting the cancer kill me.

Then on Saturday a nurse rang to say I need to come in asap for more scans and injections of dyes etc. I appreciate I need a breast MRI and PT scan but nobody has yet explained to me why my CA153 is 25 (it was 38 in April) or why I feel so physically terrific and full of energy.

I want detailed explanations of everything with a caring doctor before I commit to chemo. Every young friend of mine who has died this year of cancer went downhill after chemo. I want to be put with another oncologist. The Dr needs to be taught how to talk to a frightened patient.