If doctor will not refer me on.....
Hi
Have found a lump in my breast, well not a lump exactly more like an area that feels slightly harder and bumpier than the rest that has not always been like this.
I have an app with the doctor on Monday. What I am wondering is, can I force the doctor to refer me to a Breast Clinic for an ultrasound/mammogram? I just have a fear that the doctor will tell me its nothing to worry about and send me on my way. But how can he 100% know without further checking. Just terrified that in a year or 2 it will come to light that it is something more serious.
Also if he will not refer me on, do I need a referral to go for a private ultrasound/mammogram?
Thanks in advance.....
Comments
hi there, from my experience you are paying the doc and it is up to him to do exactly what you want him to do, i have had a bad experience with kind of the same situation 2yrs ago. i took advice like yourself and got it sorted and im now attending a lung specialist with that problem, so no matter what go with your gut and get it sorted.
maninblack[quote="rob":1z0fulza]hi. if your doctor does not take your concerns seriously and your gut instinct is telling you something is ent right, i think the first move should be to get a 2nd opinion from an independent gp who has no ties to your gp s practice.i think that you probably will need a referrral letter to go private , but you could also phone around some of the private hospitals to ask if they will see you without one.peace to you and yours rob.[/quote:1z0fulza]
I went to see my doc in January 2010 about pain in my breast, I was 31 and she sent me away saying it was fine. I went back in APril 2010 as I felt there was swelling and I still had pain, she told me I had an infection and gave me antibiotics. She then gave me a repeat antibiotic when that didnt clear it. I asked her both times about going to the breast clinic she told me I was too young to have cancer even though 10 years previously I had a fibroid adinoma removed form the same breast. I trusted her as she was the doctor, I went back to her in June as the swelling had gotten so much worse. she eventually sent me to the breast check clinic and within minutes of being there t ey were all running around ordering tests here and there...long story short...i waited so long, not trusting my own gut that my breast cancer had spread to my liver, which is not curable. I did 8 rounds of chemo and have been on 2 different hotmone treatments to try to control and maintain it and I am now, after 2 years about to go back on chemo.
So my advise to you is to learn from my mistakes and follow your gut. My doctor made a mistake but she gets to live the rest of her life as normal, I made a mistake and my life has been compromised.
If you have cocerns get the correct people to check it out and laugh about it afterwards if you were over reacting...i wish I had!
ps only realised the date after i wrote this...i hope you got it checked out and all is well...
for anyone else reading this...please learn from my mistakes...
hi. if your doctor does not take your concerns seriously and your gut instinct is telling you something is ent right, i think the first move should be to get a 2nd opinion from an independent gp who has no ties to your gp s practice.i think that you probably will need a referrral letter to go private , but you could also phone around some of the private hospitals to ask if they will see you without one.peace to you and yours rob.