When you enter cancerworld everything seems to speed up. (Except the time between when the scan is done and when you get the results of a scan...that always goes in slow motion.).
Everything else seems to come with a sense of urgency. Decisions need to be made quickly. Our fear of the cancer growing and spreading magnifies any sense of urgency that already exists. So we can get tunnel vision pretty quickly.
In addition many of us have never really had any major medical complications. And we may not have had exposure to the medical lingo or procedures. For all of these reasons I thought I might bring up second opinions. When cancer is discovered, though a scan, test, or procedure. We are usually referred to an oncologist. For many kinds of cancer it may be wise for us to also get an opinion from a surgical oncologist. Or, it may make sense for us to get a second oncologist's opinion.
It needs to be acknowledged that not everyone has this option. Because of geography, insurance limitations, or cultural conditions, we may not be able to get to a second doctor. If and when it is a possibility it may be something to consider. For me, a second opinion led to a clinical trail that kept me live long enough for science to develop a treatment that got me to No Evidence of Disease status.
Just remembering that a small delay to gather information, or even just to catch our breath, may. not be a bad thing.
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