Episode 14: Scanxiety Pt. 2

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Let’s talk about spending time in a medical center during a pandemic and meeting your new doctor all on the same day!

Last week’s episode covered how we manage normal hospital visits and the anxiety that comes with them. 

This month we had to go into Mayo Clinic for my husband’s regularly scheduled visit of scans and doctors appointments. For us, there was a little extra anxiety going in this time because we are in the middle of a pandemic and at the same time we were transitioning to a new doctor.

I’d like to start off by saying - go to your appointments! If your doctor thinks you need to be seen at a certain time to get an update on your health do it! If you have concerns about going, call them and let them know so they can asses if you should still go in. But don’t make that decision without speaking to your doctor’s office. 

I understand the fear. Believe me. My husband and I are fortunate enough to be able to work from home and spend very little time out in public. When we do go out we are masked and armed with hand sanitizer. So I understand how hard it is to go from that to being around people, stairwells, elevators and bathrooms when that may be what you have been avoiding.

Cancer doesn’t care that we are in the middle of a pandemic. Diseases won’t pause and wait until we are over this. Things will continue to grow and spread even if you are too worried to go in to see your doctor. So please don’t wait. Talk over your concerns with your doctor or nurse. They will have your best interest in mind and will be able to tell you if your visit can wait or not, based on your specific health information.

Last week we went to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for my husband's visit. I can’t say it was an easy thing for me to do. As you know from last weeks episode there is a lot of planning on my part that goes into these days. Going while Covid-19 is still an issue made it especially difficult.

I was worried about:

• People not wearing masks.
• Having to take elevators. 
• The weather not being conducive to going outside on that one day. 
• Having to use public bathrooms. 
• Figuring out where we could safely eat.
• Droplet clouds.
• Not touching my face. 

You know, normal pandemic worries.

When we got there we hung out in the car for a bit. We were early for the first appointment and even though we normally would walk in and wait inside the building we figured it would be best to just wait in the car for a while. We were able to park in a structure but when we got to the elevator it was just too full of people. There are squares marked off on the floor but there is no way to social distance in the elevators. I think they assume everyone will be wearing a mask and the amount of time in the elevator would keep any time spent around that group of people to a minimum. You would probably spend less than a minute in any elevator there. But it was just too much for my brain to be able to handle first thing.

I was worried that the elevators were a sign of what the rest of the day would be like. We chose to walk down the stairs 5 stories to the subway level to get to where we needed to be. At the entrance we were greeted by screeners who took our temperature and asked us covid questions before giving us a sticker we were to wear the rest of the day.  That way we wouldn’t have to go through screening every time we walked into a building. The process was fast and painless. It was actually nice to interact with someone I didn’t know. I didn’t realize how much I missed speaking to strangers. 

Once in the building the next roadblock was the bathroom. The drive is two hours to get there so using the bathroom couldn’t really wait much longer. The bathrooms are always clean there, so that wasn’t a concern. There weren’t any people hanging out and it felt as safe as it was going to I guess. 

Check in for labs was smooth. There are hand sanitizer stations everywhere. He was called in right away and then we took the closest route to get outside because he needed to eat breakfast after fasting for so long into the day. We found a really cute place with outdoor tables nestled in between a couple of buildings and the weather was great. I can’t imagine how we will handle things when we have to go back in January. Maybe we’ll bring snow suits and make igloos!

After relaxing outside we went back in for scans. We tried waiting for an elevator and they were just too full for us to feel comfortable with it. So we took the stairs to the third floor. The seats are arranged so that two people can sit together and then the next set of chairs were at least six feet apart. That made me feel good about being in the waiting area. There were some changes in who can go into certain appointments. To go into a Mayo building they allow one person to go with you. However, I usually can go in with my husband for his ultrasound and they weren’t letting anyone but the patient to go in for diagnostics. I was able to go in to meet with the doctor which is the important one to go to anyway. 

The rest of the day was ok. After scans were done we went back outside so that we could eat lunch and walk around. When we made it back to meet with the doctor we were taken to a room pretty quickly. For a moment we thought wow, this new doctor runs on time and that actually had me a little worried. I valued the fact that the previous doctor didn’t make us feel rushed and I was worried the new one might if she was running on time. It was ok. Our meeting started late also which made me think they put you in a room to wait so you didn’t have to sit in the public waiting area. 

Let’s talk about having to change doctors. It takes a little while to really get to know a doctor but if you have to go to regular screenings and appointments you usually get to know an oncologist a little better in less time. There has to be a certain amount of trust in that relationship because cancer and diseases are serious and you have to trust that your doctor is giving you the information you need and has your best interest in mind. So over a period of years I feel the patient and their caregiver hold their doctor in a special place. Where the doctor may see hundreds of people a week they are each patient’s only doctor. Hopefully you go into your appointments with out feeling you need to second guess the person who facilitates your care. 

Finding out that my husbands oncologist was retiring was difficult. We’d spent over 4 years with this one person who had the knowledge and power to do things to keep him alive as best as he could. The doctor understood my husband’s personality and the relationship that we have as a couple. He knew that I was the information taker, that when I asked questions it wasn’t meant as a challenge and that there are certain things my husband is pretty adamant about when it comes to certain decisions. 

So having to start new left us not knowing how things were going to change. I have to admit I had my small internal crisis. Then I realized that I needed to trust that the new doctor would be a good fit for my husband. I had to believe that the department would take careful consideration when placing patients with new doctors and I had to let go of my attachment to the previous one. I needed to be ok with being uncomfortable with it and give the new doctor a chance. 

In the end it all went well. The new doctor made us feel a little more comfortable about working with her and she acknowledged that it was a change that could be unsettling for us. Then she very thoroughly explained the results of the tests and we discussed what steps could be next.

I think as humans we don’t like change and then as caregivers we are already burdened with stress, which makes it more difficult for our brains to problem solve. Having to go into these appointments last week and having to deal with new safety protocols on top of meeting a new doctor could have been enough to want to avoid the whole situation. However, we knew that getting in to see the doctor was more important than avoiding how uncomfortable it would all be. 

Letting go of what we would like the outcome to be as best as we possibly could was also important to make this day easier. To be honest being at the Mayo Clinic has been the safest I’ve felt out in public since this pandemic started. I am sure that other medical centers are taking the same precautions as they are. Plus everyone there did not have a problem following the rule of wearing a mask.

Letting go of wanting things to be comfortable allowed us to accept the new doctor and really hear what they had to say. If we had been resistant to a change that was going to happen whether we liked it or not, our appointment would not have gone well. It also would not have allowed us to be good human beings either. It wasn’t this doctors fault that the other one decided to retire. They took us on as any other patient they would care for and I feel that we need to be just as accepting. 

So - if you have an appointment to go to please go to it. When you end up having to see a new doctor give them a chance. 

Hopefully sharing how our day went can put you at ease at least just a little and can give you ideas of how to get through the day.

I would love to hear how you have dealt with having to go in for your visits during the past six months or switching over to a new doctor. Send me an email and let me know how your experiences were.

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