On Breasts and doctors

It's October, it means breast cancer awareness month. There are lots of Pink Ribbon products in stores to raise money for breast cancer research. I dont know if kids these days learn how to examine their own breast, but back in the day, I didnt learn it at school/sex ed. I learned it from books/leaflet and from my doctor.

I really do think it's important to learn how to do it properly from a young age. I dont know about other people, especially other women, but I remember how scared I was when I thought there was a possibility that things were worse than it was.

Until then, I never thought much about how important my breasts to my being female. I mean I was, and still am, happy with mine, but that's just about it. However, facing the possibility of something really wrong with it, I couldnt help but to wonder about living without it. Would I still feel feminine without (part of) it? How would others, particularly men, perceived a woman with scarred torso. I didnt even think about losing hair due to chemo, or even death. All I could think of was lopsided chest! Yeah, I am that shallow.

This year I had another little scare. I guess that's part of the territory of having HMS, we, 'mutants', are more prone of having cysts. After waiting for ages and became angry for their service at the cancer hospital, and logging my complaint, I got to see an oncologist, who just said that I need to get pregnant to balance out my hormones. Thanks for your advice, doctor!

Being in that hospital and seeing that doctor made me miss my old oncologist and how she talked me through it and assured me 3 years ago. Not only this doctor didnt address my problem, instead of acknowledging that he's not in capacity to advice me about hormones, he was very condescending.

Maybe I met the wrong doctor, the one who just interested in cutting his patients up and not really communicating with his patients. I do, however, think, no matter how good you are at cutting people up, if your bedside manners and communication skills let you down, you are more prone to have dissatisfied patient. I wouldnt be surprised that one day someone would sued you.

Therefore, I was quite pleased to see this consultant Medical Oncologist at the other hospital. This handsome professor was so down to earth, took his time to explained things to me, and gracefully enough to refer me to another consultant endocrinologist who he thought could help me much better with my problem. And, did I mention he waived his fee because we went to the same med school? No, I didnt say he's good because of that, I've heard good things about him from my other friends too. I bet, if he did something wrong, his patients were more reluctant to sue him because of his bedside manner and communication.

I understand that seeing cancer patients day-in-day-out could get you. But treating them as human, not just as an object is a must. My father always told me that as a doctor you are also there to help them cope with their illness. I used to complaint to my father as he spent too much time with his patients and their families. Now, I wish I have such doctor of my own.