Tuesday (Aug 5) is the big day. That’s when I’ll be given information about the tests I took last week: the biopsy from the operation and the big PET scan. That’s make or break day for me; the big one; when all the chicken will come home to roost and the fat lady will (or will not) sing. Am I nervous about it? You bet.
I have two appointments: with an oncology doctor in the morning and with professor Ko, my surgeon, in the afternoon. I have number 100 for the oncologist. His clinic starts at 9, meaning that he’ll see me around 11.30 or so. A doctor who sees 100 patients in three hours gives each one 1.8 minutes, or 108 seconds. Is this all the time he’s going to devote to conveying this life-and-death information? Mumble a few words, point to a few charts, and send me away? That seems unbelievably cruel. Especially, of course, if the information is negative. The NTU doctors know a lot about illnesses but not very much about patients.