Telling it Like It Is!

Yesterday there was an article in “The Independent” – “'It's terminal': How to break bad news” and it was about how so many Doctors fail to give the “bad news” in a proper and caring manner. Certainly for us this was true. When we had the “Bad News” interview in November 2006 – Dr “E” the Oncologist was very, very blunt – and strangely I have absolutely no problem with this – I don’t want false hope raised and I do want the opportunity and time to ask questions. This we had. We were also told that I could have chemotherapy in two versions – a mild one which would give me a life expectation of around 3 to 6 months or very aggressive chemotherapy which would give me a life expectation of around 6 months to a year. I took the latter.

My objection was that when our consultation was over we were offered absolutely no support – in an ideal world we should have been given a private room to sit in for a little, whilst we adjusted to this horrendous news; and even better we should have been offered a cup of tea and someone to sit with us and help us understand. Instead, at 5 o'clock at night, we wandered out into a rainy November car park and sat in the car and wept.