I’m getting brain fog about questions we should ask at husbands first two week pathway tomorrow for possible lung cancer with spread to spine…can anyone suggest the most important things we should ask, please?
The way things went for him in June when problem first explored has resulted in hospital starting a serious enquiry as many others didn’t receive the expected service either. I want to make sure that this isn’t repeated by being more knowledgeable about what the proceedure should be. Should a clinical nurse etc be appointed? Any bullet points you can suggest we should make note of and ask?
Your help would be invaluable. ( Not knowing the workings of this wonderful MacMillan site, I’ve also posted in another category)
Hi Auguste0fc2bf from a previous post I think this is your husbands respiratory appointment? This will be an appointment to discuss what they think it may be, and to do some breathing tests. Your husband will not be assigned a clinical nurse until you are passed to oncology. In my experience respiratory appointments are just to get a baseline on the breathing tests, and to pass you onto the right pathway. Respiratory consultants are not oncologists, and I myself was given some very poor information at this stage, with my respiratory doctor telling me I had 6 months to live. I have heard similar stories from other people in this group, where they were told information that completely changed when they saw the oncologist. I wouldn’t expect any answers from this appointment, just see it as a necessary appointment to get passed onto oncology, and for the necessary tests that will happen. Wait until you see the oncologist as he is the expert on cancer, not respiratory.
Not necessarily. The 2 week pathway is to get you onto the system for tests and to see the first consultant, which with lung cancer is usually the respiratory doctor. There is a target called the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS). The target is that you should not wait more than 28 days from referral to finding out whether you have cancer or not. Having said that things do move really quickly once you see the respiratory team. You will find appointments coming in thick and fast, ct scans, pet scans and biopsy, and some people (depending on the hospital) do not actually meet their oncology team until after all of these tests are back!
At the beginning of my journey, I was extremely unwell, so it is hard to remember a timescale as I was rushed into A&E twice with my lung collapsing, and needed surgery very quickly. That was after I saw respiratory but I don’t think I had met my oncologist at that point.
I Wonder if any other member can answer this, how long after respiratory did you meet your oncologist?
