I didn't get in. Blah Blah Blah. Infact it was a horrendous first round but... hopefully having my grades in hand will help me this time round- if I ever get round to finishing uni. A relative in my immediate family who I am exceptionally close too has brain mets- so terminal cancer. It's fucking shit. I am not at all happy with the way the whole diagnosis was handled- and it's not a GP at fault - I'm talking about an up-his-own-arse Gastro surgeon who doesn't bother to tell his patient's they have cancer/fail to refer to oncology - requiring another family member to arrange it and then a rather arrogant oncologist who wouldn't do a head CT despite the family observing a rapid decline in concentration, speech, mobility and normal function, etc. After DEMANDING a head CT we find out that there are two tumours in the brain- one in each hemisphere. And that isn't even the half of it- failure to even offer prophylactic chemo tablets follwing removal of a tumor at the appendix 1.5 years ago led to tumours developing in the lung and liver. Now... any idiot can find out that brain mets are most like to result from primary tumours which originate in the lung, colon, breast, with primary lung cancer giving the highest cases. So wouldn't it be sensible to CT the abdo AND head. Well yes, I think it would have.
Doctors are only human, but this series of events were more than simple error, they were plain laziness- bordering on negligence (in the case of the Gastro guy, who by the way has done this before to a woman who is a close friend of the family and my former teacher). Has this put me off medicine? No, it hasn't, it's made me want to do it even more and I have seen what I don't want to become if I ever make it - a half arsed doctor. If you aren't 100% into it then it's time to get the f*ck out, don't let patients suffer because you aren't as into your job anymore but want to keep yourself in a flash car and Armani suits (you got it- Gastro guy again!).
Harsh? Maybe, but I'm writing this as a relative and I'm not alone in my feelings.
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