Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Thank you for making me feel insecure about my treatment

I hate these articles. This one discusses the lack of guidelines for what kind of clean margins are needed for whether a re-excision is needed after a lumpectomy. First let me say, thank you for upsetting potentially hundreds of thousands of women who had a lumpectomy and may or may not have had a needed second surgery or had a second surgery unnecessarily. This isn't something that really can be undone. If a second surgery was needed and wasn't done, there is probably nothing that can be done now. If a second surgery wasn't needed but was done, you really can't undo surgery.

Second, the general media is not the place to discuss undetermined medical guidelines. These should be discussed by the people who practice medicine, not by the patients. As a patient, we assume that we are given proper medical care. We assume our doctors follow guidelines and protocols. We don't want to hear about the lack of guidelines that may have led to improper care.

Also, I assume that the hospital where I am treated has its own guidelines and protocols something that is not discussed in this article at all. It makes us patients feel like we may have been mistreated. I know, as a professional patient and not as a medical professional, that the hospital I am treated at has established guidelines for what is the current protocol for chemotherapy or preparation for some lovely medical adventure. So is this article saying there are no guidelines followed anywhere?

So I am so 'not' comfy with my medical treatment after reading this. I will now go have some breakfast and attempt to think positive thoughts about something else.



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