Saturday, February 28, 2009

Note to Susan

Teresa. Remember where you are. I know that you want the patients to receive the same care as they do in the states. But, is that realistic? I think that you should pray and ask the Lord to direct you. You know that nothing happens in God's world by mistake.....Everything, if it is supposed to, will work out just fine. It is NOT up to YOU but to him all things are well done....You are not alone. He called you there. He will help you, believe in him....
Love you! Susan

I would rather have the calculators, I think they would be more accurate, but whatever you can find will be fine. I just wanted to throw in the towel and quit on Thursday. I get so frustrated, the surgeon won't answer his phone and won't return my calls. We have several very difficult cases that I need to discuss with him and my oncologist is leaving on Monday to go back to Cuba for 6 weeks. I really feel like it is all on my shoulders. One lady had a lumpectomy which came back as ductal carcinoma, the oncologist said that he could only get part of the tumor. He knows there was still disease there, as well as positive lymph nodes. Her mastectomy specimen got sent to the government lab instead of the private lab where we send breast specimens. The report came back that it was fibrocystic disease and no lymph nodes reported on. The oncologist says this report does not belong to this patient. I can't fight with the pathologist, I need the surgeon to call and take care of this. Another case, the surgeon says the tumor is too big to do a lumpectomy. Her FNA came back as hyperplastic ductal cells, which my oncologist thinks is probably cancer. He wanted the surgeon to do a lumpectomy for a definitive diagnosis. The surgeon says he needs to do a core biopsy, but doesn't' have the needle to do it. So I am checking with the private hospital to see if they have it. This patient needs chemo and RTX before mastectomy, but we can't send her to south Africa for chemo without a definitive diagnosis. I just feel so helpless sometimes! Thanks for trying to get these for me! Keep me in your prayers, please!
Teresa

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