Why was cancer not spotted?

seven-day-weekend

I agree that google can often be our friend (if, as lostin rates says, we have the wherewithal).

I found out that some medication had finally been licensed for use in Restless Leg Syndrome, printed the article out and gave it to my GP, who after a few checks prescribed the medication and made my life a whole lot better. My husband googled a condition he had, and again printed out the article, our GP agreed and referred him to a consultant straight away.

A funny story, when we lived in Spain, my husband went to our Spanish GP with a problem with his hand, the DR took one look at it and hadn't a clue what it was, so referred him to a consultant (this is the norm in Spain). Meanwhile my husband googled the condition and found it was Dupuytrens Contracture,quite common amongst middle-aged men of northern European or Viking extraction. So he printed out the page in Spanish and gave it to the Dr, who laughed and said there were not many people who were of Vikings descent in southern Spain. and that is why he had not seen it before. When my husband got back to the UK, he showed his hand both to our GP and to our friend who is a Consultant Geriatrician, they both said instantly 'Ah! Dupuytrens!' :rotfl: because they are used to dealing with Vikings

Here's the link for other Vikings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupuytren's_contracture

Errata

Clearly some people have difficult relationships with their primary care practitioers. I'm as old as Methusalah's aunty, have lived all over the country and have never had an unproductive consultation with any GP or consultant. I'm not being smug about that, I think that applies to a great many people, but good news doesn't make for interesting threads so people rarely post about it.

seven-day-weekend

Errata, I'm really glad about that. I suppose it depends what you want a GP to do. Some want them just to be cuddly and don't care if they are incompetent. Others want the competency but couldn't give a hoot about the bedside manner. I personally want both, it doesn't hurt to smile, but given a choice I would rather have the competency.

My own GP is very nice and gives as much time as you need, he just appears rather incompetent.

Errata

Like you I prefer both, pragmatically I prefer a competent doctor who may seem a little brisk to an incompetent one, something I also prefer in a vet.
How does the average patient with scant medical kowledge and little undertstanding of how the human body works judge competence? For instance, your story about the Spanish doctor is interesting as the prevalence in Spain of Dupuytrens is one in ten, so it's quite common; your OH's pneumonia may have developed in the time between his GP seeing him and a consultant seeing him.

lostinrates

Errata wrote: »

Like you I prefer both, pragmatically I prefer a competent doctor who may seem a little brisk to an incompetent one, something I also prefer in a vet.
How does the average patient with scant medical kowledge and little undertstanding of how the human body works judge competence? For instance, your story about the Spanish doctor is interesting as the prevalence in Spain of Dupuytrens is one in ten, so it's quite common; your OH's pneumonia may have developed in the time between his GP seeing him and a consultant seeing him.

I think you raise a very valid point about judging competence. And veterinary science. I compare it to veterinary science, an area where I have some knowledge. I also compare it to private versus nhs treatment and treatment in uk and elsewhere.

'Gp' incompetence, often doesn't lie with, or solely with the Go but rather the support staff or practice manager. For example, my husband has not had one repeat prescription ransomed to the chemist go to plan. The chemist tells us its 'not at all uncommon' from that practise. Otoh I use a different pharmacist who does deliveries and managed prescriptions and ThEY get it wrong. To some one who struggles with the system (and its taken me a while to work out where the fault lay) it is easy and lazy to just blame the 'GP' for those sort of things too.

seven-day-weekend

Errata wrote: »

Like you I prefer both, pragmatically I prefer a competent doctor who may seem a little brisk to an incompetent one, something I also prefer in a vet.
How does the average patient with scant medical kowledge and little undertstanding of how the human body works judge competence? For instance, your story about the Spanish doctor is interesting as the prevalence in Spain of Dupuytrens is one in ten, so it's quite common; your OH's pneumonia may have developed in the time between his GP seeing him and a consultant seeing him.

I don't think our Spanish Doctor, working with patients from the mountain villages in the Sierra Nevada south of Granada (very remote), would have worked with many Vikings . Even Spaniards from northern Spain refer to the people there as The Flintstones. I agree that in more cosmopolitan parts of Spain a Dr might have seen it.

As for the pneumonia, the consultant said it was long-standing and had done damage to my husband's lungs, he had to give up scuba diving (which he loved), because of it. Our GP missed it, end of.

Errata

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I don't think our Spanish Doctor, working with patients from the mountain villages in the Sierra Nevada south of Granada (very remote), would have worked with many Vikings . The people there are still quite inbred. Even Spaniards from northern Spain refer to them as The Flintstones. I agree that in more cosmopolitan parts of Spain a Dr might have seen it.

.

Fair enough, but the fact that the prevalence in the whole of Spain is 1 in 10 indicates the condition is a common one covered in Spanish medical training and the doctor would have kowledge of it even if he'd never seen it before in a patient. So perhaps the competence of a doctor who "took one look at it and hadn't a clue what it was" could be called into question.
And as you say - end of.

seven-day-weekend

Errata wrote: »

Fair enough, but the fact that the prevalence in the whole of Spain is 1 in 10 indicates the condition is a common one covered in Spanish medical training and the doctor would have kowledge of it even if he'd never seen it before in a patient. So perhaps the competence of a doctor who "took one look at it and hadn't a clue what it was" could be called into question.
And as you say - end of.

Maybe you are right. We found going to the Dr's difficult because our Spanish wasn't good enough (we usually wrote things down beforehand ). However, another complaint my husband had, which involved an operation, he got sorted out in no time, so that's why we thought he was good.

Anyway, we will never know now, he has just won his second term as Mayor and has stopped 'doctoring' for a while, and we are now living back in the UK anyway.

seven-day-weekend

Person_one wrote: »

In some ways, I think its a blessing that my friend's tumour was not discovered until near the end. I've seen people with brain tumours go through months and years of intensive treatment, lose their hair, their sight, their speech, their ability to walk and even with all that, the survival rates for a lot of brain tumours are still very poor.

Hopefully your friend will be able to use his remaining time in a way that he finds meaningful, and he will have his symptoms controlled for as long as possible. That's what I'd want for myself if I had an aggressive cancer like his.

I know its hard to think of it like that at first though, anger is a perfectly understandable response.

Just resurrected this thread to say our friends' time is even shorter than initially it was thought. He is now at home and receiving good care from his wife, district nurses and a local hospice.

I have quoted Person One's post because it is the most relevant in what I am going to say.

I would like to say that our friend (and his wife) are both very calm (which in our friend is wonderful, he has had anxiety for at least fifty years). He has accepted what is going to happen. He said it is good not to have to worry about his work, and where the money is going to come from. So he does have quite a large element of peace.

We took him to church on Sunday (at his request), in his wheelchair, he wanted to go and received much blessing from it. We shall continue to do that whenever he wants. It gives his wife a break too.

There are bad times too, like when the brain tumour makes him aggressive, but this is not the real man we knew, it is just awful for his wife when this happens. However, my husband had a talk with him on Sunday and told him he must take the valium (he was refusing to take it), because it would help keep him calm and was better for himself and his wife, as they would both be able to manage better. He promised he would take them.

Thanks all for your support and I will keep the thread updated when there is any more to report.

marisco_2

Thank you for updating us. So sorry to hear of all that your friends are coping with and facing. They are very fortunate to have you by their side, supporting them through this difficult time.