You would think these days when cancer appears to be spreading to epidemic proportions that the doctors would rule out cancer FIRST before they start piddling around with everything else. Instead, they seem to look for the simplest reason for the symptoms, then stop there without any further investigation. I can understand that it can be like looking like a needle in a haystack, finding the culprit behind many symptoms, but I keep hearing over and over and over again, and have experienced it in both my Mom's and brother's cancers, that the doctors stopped with the first test and it took a lot of prodding to get them to investigate further. Why don't they trust the patients!!! We know our bodies, we know when something's wrong.

It took two months to get the doctors to investigate my Mom - they stopped when they found a bladder infection. I was adament that there was more going on than that - but it took almost two months before they finally investigated further and found that she was FULL of cancer, throughout her bones and spine. It was too late to treat her, but in between the original diagnosis of bladder infection and the final diagnosis of cancer, she endured much emotional suffering (one of the nurses actually accused her to her face of 'faking' it).

Same story with my brother. They stopped at the diagnosis of diabetes; it took many more trips to emergency before they finally took his concerns seriously and investigated further, and almost right away found that he had stage 4B (the most advanced) Hodgkin's Lymphoma - who knows if they had found the cancer and started chemo right away if it might have made the difference between life and death. A big part of the reason he didn't make it was because he was so weak by the time he began treatment - three months could have made a HUGE difference in how strong he would have been going into the chemo.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post, but this infuritates me that the doctors don't investigate further right away - especially when it's clear that cancer is so prevalent these days - and that early treatment is imperative in order to save lives.