Family Tree and Sucky Radiologists

I have become obsessed with my family tree. I don't know if it is the whole dying thing, but I really want to know where I fit in the the grand scheme of things. Getting down my family tree has been a really interesting and soothing way to place myself in history. I am using a great free online software called www.myheritage.com. I tried out several, and this was the most modern, most options and the easiest to use.

I have really only added my grandfather's side and I have 155 people so far going back 4 generations to Augustino Mecca, born in Italy in 1864. These Italians procreated like rabbits, which accounts for the amount of people with only four generations. And this is as far as it goes! We don't have much info passed that mid 1800's. So I think once I have everyone down, I might have to do some archive sleuthing! Fabulous excuse to go to Europe, don't you think?

Luis' family is going to be a madhouse, because even Luis mom doesn't remember birth dates for everyone because again, Catholic = lots of people and Puerto Rico = not the greatest record keeping. I guess that is what happens when you have 17 brothers and sisters;) Saving them until summer. Gonna get the American/Italians/German's down first.

Health Stuff

My blistering has caused my docs to postpone both my chemo and my radiation. ARG! But I need to heal, and trust me, it doesn't feel great, so I accept their opinion that I need to wait. I hate missing chemo when I take my pre-steroids because I just pumped by body full of really bad stuff for nothing.

I have learned a lot about radiologists during this month and I am not too impressed by my doctor so far.

Radiology is a GREAT field for doctors that suck at being people people. Their patient contact is minimal because the people that actually administer the radiation are the dosologist and the radiotherapists. I see the nurse practitioners every day, and they are wonderful, but my radiologist doesn't explain anything, and just checks my skin once a week for about 30 seconds.

So basically, since radiologists just see their patients once a week, they can make lots of money by serving patients in 3 or 4 clinics during the week, and going to one clinic each day. Most regular doctors work in 1, but radiologists can bounce from clinic to clinic, since their nurse practitioner, dosologist, and radiotherapists are doing all the work for them. Now, granted, the work is just running a computer program and the machine creates the gamma ray output, it doesn't take much skill, but radiology can be big money cause so many patients can be seen by one person. Here is a NYT article about it.

So this weekend, as most of you know from my griping, was pretty painful. I had radiotherapy on Monday, which was my last session for the entire chest area. I also had it Tuesday, which was the first of five treatments around the surgical scar. My radiologist who doesn't usually come into the radiation room, came in before my treatment on Tuesday to make sure that the radiation to the incision area was lined up. Therefore, he had to look at my chest, and he did, but only for about 15 seconds, and then he turned around and left without really saying anything (he nodded to the radiotherapist).

Tuesday is also the day that I see him at an appointment. I first see the nurse practitioner, who gasped, and said that we need to postpone treatment, that I needed to be on antibiotics until my wounds closed up, and that I needed burn cream, and needed all of this today. Then the radiologist waltzes in, she tells him my treatment plan, and he agrees. Which is fine, but HE SAW MY OOZY NASTY CHEST 15 minutes before that. Didn't that set off any alarm bells? Why did he let me get treated and then 15 minutes later say the damage was serious enough that I needed to take a week off? I don't think he looked at all, to be honest. He is just in his own world.

So lessons learned. 1) Make sure you see a radiologist that examines you BEFORE you get radiated, not after. 2) Make sure you get a radiologist that is a people person and actually enjoys patients 3) Make sure you get a radiologist that isn't jumping back and forth between 3 clinics and is super busy.

At first I though the Medicare regulation was too strict, and now I know it is necessary. The NYT article is really interesting. I hope you enjoy it.