During my career as a clinical oncologist for the past 15 years I have come across numerous patients and their family members, who when faced with the cruel fact that either he/she or a person very close to their heart has been diagnosed with cancer, are utterly confused and disoriented. They are at their wit's end about their next step.
The patient himself/herself goes through a series of psychological upheavals starting with the feeling that the diagnosis is incorrect and thereafter moving onto the feeling of hopelessness culminating into the feeling of "Why Me Of All Persons ?". In other words the state of mind of the patient does not allow him/her to think rationally about the further course of action. The patient's family, on the other hand, is devastated by the diagnosis and are running from pillar to post to find out the ways and means of treatment. Opinions start to flow in from every possible corner about the doctor to see, the drugs to use, the alternative medicine resources, anecdotes, how bleak is the future and what not leaving them utterly confused.
Navigating through all these when the patient and the family decide to see a doctor, an oncologist to be precise, the busy doctor, sitting in his office, takes a moment to glance through the papers pertaining to the diagnosis and starts prescribing the treatment. This may not happen in the developed countries but it certainly happens days in and days out in the developing and the underdeveloped countries where the doctor-patient ratio is appalling. The doctor does not have the time and more so does not have the inclination to listen to the patient's story and counsel the patient. The family and the patient had jotted down so many things that they wanted to ask the oncologist but could not gather the confidence and the courage to ask him. The patient is in no state of mind to cajole the doctor and even if somebody from the family gathers the courage to put up a question to the doctor, curt comes the reply,"It is beyond your comprehension" or "You could have become a doctor yourself to understand these intricacies of medicine and especially cancer". My decision is final and binding replies the doctor signals his assistant to send in the next patient.
You come out of the oncologist's office dazed and more confused and telephone one of your relatives about the appointment that you just had with the oncologist. He narrates a story to you and guides you to another oncologist who is supposed to be very good. When you visit him, he leaves you more confused about the management because what he tells does not tally with the previous oncologist's version. You don't know what to do and whom to approach with your dilemma. You decide to surf the internet to gather some information but that does not help either because the search engine returns results in millions in a fraction of a second. You don't know which information to assimilate. Finally you choose to toss a coin and select an oncologist and you do your best to stick on to him and follow his instructions though sometimes you have your own doubts.
This is not the way cancer should be treated. There are guidelines for everything starting from prevention to diagnosis and management. All these have been devised after years' of clinical research. Keeping these guidelines in the back of your mind while treating a patient or guiding him promises to deliver the best possible as per evidence based medicine.
Keeping this in mind I envisaged a site of my own which will help these cancer patients by guiding them properly and by being a friend in their days of need. I am not a rich doctor and therefore could not afford to build a fancy dedicated site of my own. I have decided to start small with a blog site therefore and provide my services through it only. Some years down the line I wish to upgrade this endeavor of mine to be upgraded to something like a "Wikioncologica" which will serve the mankind. If anybody reading this blog has any questions or comments, I would be more than happy to answer them either at my blog or by e mail.
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