Late Diagnosis of Oral Cancer

[gnomestorm]

My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: back in november of 2011, my mother had a canker sore problem as so it would seem. the canker sore would not go away and doctors, multiple doctors put it on the side. finally, on April 3rd, 2012, 30 minutes ago, test results confirmed that it is oral cancer. it took a whopping 6 months to find out she has oral cancer. I'm litterally in tears just writing this as it pains my heart. This is the first ever I had a family member who has cancer. It hurts so much I can hardly bear it. I feel like the doctors cared more about referring other doctors to deal with her so they wouldn't have to deal with the canker sore. It was really tiny and unnoticeable until now. I feel powerless, I don't know where to go, i don't know how to start, and I don't even know where to begin. . Is it my problem that I think the doctors did something wrong and ignored my mom's problems? Do I have a right to fight back against this treachery? I have all of the appointments, dates, and everything.

Should it really take 6-7 months to find out if someone has cancer? Please. I'm desperate for any say, any opinion. She's my mother, she fed me, held my hand, dried my tears, and put her whole heart in me, anything that you can imagine to think of the perfect possible mom. Even at 24, I'm still her baby boy, and I still have the same heart I had when I was 6 when i looked up to her and smiled.

Sorry, I'm new here. I'm not sure if this is a double post or not.

[LawResearcherMissy]

Do I have a right to fight back against this treachery?

"Treachery"? Come now. Are you really claiming your Mom's doctor's purposefully did nothing to try to figure out what was wrong with her?

You don't have any rights in this situation at all. Legally, you are no one in this situation. If your Mom feels her docs did her wrong, she's certainly free to take her medical records to a med-mal attorney and have them looked over for indications of malpractice, but that's completely up to her.

[aardvarc]

Having had oral cancer myself (and a recurrance), I can tell you that not all forms of oral cancer present in ways that would make a physician suspect or test for cancer. Oral cancers are infamous for growing at an incredibly rapid rate, and going from a little sore to something much worse in a short time - of course that depends on many factors, including the type (squamous cell?), location, nutrition, age, risk factors, and general health of the patient - but if it was small and stayed small for months, that wouldn't trigger many docs to look for cancer (especially if small enough that margins appeared uniform). Mine was actually discovered by my dentist, whom I went to see when I thought the rough edge of a tooth was irritating the edge of my tongue. Only the location (on the margin/edge of the tongue where it DIDN'T actually contact the tooth I thought was the problem) made the dentist suspicious, and prompted a referral to an oral surgeon who did the confirming biopsy (wow, waiting for that phone call sucked).

While your emotional state may not let you have a grounded look at the situation, the reality is that doctors don't pass off patients to other docs just do they don't have to deal with a canker sore. If they were making referrals to other docs, that IS doing something. You also don't give us any indication of what TYPES of doctors she was seeing, what other conditions the doctors may have been worried about more, how frequently she was seeing the list of doctors in question, etc. Problematic oral sores can be LOTS of things, from injury, to bacterial issues, to a sexually transmitted disease, to all sorts of horrible viruses. Each of those could be equal candidates to rule out, which is a process that can take time (and blood tests, cultures, biopsies, personal histories, etc.).

Should it really take 6-7 months to find out if someone has cancer?

It can. Especially if there is lag time between appointments with the various doctors, plus time for tests to be done and results to come back before going on to the next thing.

I feel powerless, I don't know where to go, i don't know how to start, and I don't even know where to begin.

Start by putting your energy where it'll do your mom some GOOD. She's got a tough road ahead. I'll tell you from experience that oral cancer isn't a picnic - but neither is it the untreatable or terminal death sentence that goes hand in hand with other forms of cancer. In fact after multiple urgeries on my tongue and neck, I work in a job where I talk for a living (law enforcement dispatch).

Educate yourself about the specifc type of cancer she has. Educate yourself about possible complications, from both the disease, and from the potential treatments (chemo, radiation, and surgery are the main ones, and each poses challenges). The less freaked out YOU are, the more comfort you will be able to provide to her. Join the support group at www.oralcancerfoundation.org - you will find lots of information, support, and guidance there. Mom may need to lean on you, so make sure you have a support system for yourSELF to lean on. You and mom each only have a finite amount of time, money, and energy, and mom is going to need all of HERS and some of yours, to fight her disease - and the sooner the better. Delay in treatment drastically impacts the probability of a happy outcome. If there's any medical malpractice case to be had, that can be addressed LATER (according to the laws of your unnamed state, but in most cases you've got at least 2 years and potentially many more).