You’ve just received the news that no one – EVER – wants to receive and all you want to do is take a moment to breath. Sit back and come to terms with what you’ve just learned. Do you get that opportunity? No! Not even a millisecond. From the time you receive your diagnosis you are hit, over and over and over again, with the need to schedule – and attend – doctors’ appointments. Not one doctor’s appointment. Not two. LOTS of doctor’s appointments.
You need to go to these appointments. Even if you don’t want to go, they are a must. For lots of reasons.
First, there is that sticky little thing called insurance. If your insurance company is going to pay (okay, partially pay) for your treatment, they have certain requirements that must be met And of course, one of them entails a series of doctors’ appointments. All I want to do is curl up with a nice bottle or red wine – or maybe something stronger. Instead I’m making and going to these d*!$ appointments. An oncologist. A surgeon. And – gulp! – a plastic surgeon. My insurance company is making me see all three.
My gynecologist is the doctor who ordered my mammogram and got the results. He had the pleasure of delivering the wonderful news to me. but he certainly wasn’t going to be the one to treat my breast cancer. Definitely outside his wheelhouse. And I needed to be treated. The result? The need for doctors’ appointments. To put together who will be my team to fight along with me.
With my team in place to put together a full treatment plan, whoever that person was would have no idea what the best course of action would be without a complete diagnosis. This is where the radiologist enters the picture. This is the doctor in your life who will do more scanning, poking, prodding, and biopsies than you ever thought possible to determine what your actual diagnosis is.
And here is my lesson for this week: You have to go to all of these doctors’ appointments. This is your opportunity to choose who is going to be in your corner, cheering you on and helping you fight. Your opportunity to pick the very best people – who align with your thoughts and beliefs – to determine your treatment plan. Your opportunity to select those who could very well have a HUGE impact on the success of your battle to come.