First conversation:
Nurse, doing my pre-chemo blood-draw: "So are you almost done?"
Me: "No."
Nurse (chirping): "Yup!"
Me: "I have metastatic cancer, so treatment will continue for the forseeable future."
Nurse: "Yup!"
Second conversation:
Nurse setting up my chemo: "You must be almost done."
Me: "No, actually. I have metastatic cancer and will be in treatment for some time."
Nurse: "Well, they usually only give Herceptin for a year."
Me (Too worn out to explain that this is not the case when Herceptin is being used to treat cancer that has spread or metastic): Hmmm.
Am I wrong to hold health care providers to a higher standard?
Don't get me wrong, the nurses are, generally speaking, wonderful. And busy. So I don't expect each one of them to have read my chart.
But shouldn't oncology nurses know enough about differences in treatment protocols to not ask these kinds of questions if they don't really have an interest in the answers?
Just asking.
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