i think we all have a horror story

like this to tell about ourselves, a member of our family or one of our friends........

from the the new york times


Sick and Scared, and Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Freddie Odlum spent two terrible days waiting by the phone for her doctor to call. She had had a CT scan to investigate a suspicious mass in her lungs and Ms. Odlum, a Los Angeles breast cancer patient, was all too aware that if the cancer had spread, her prognosis would not be good.
Her doctor, she said, informed her that he was going on vacation in two days and "that we needed to 'wrap this up' before he left for a few weeks." "All those clichés when someone is facing a terminal diagnosis are used because they are true," she said. "Racing pulse, dry mouth, total self-preoccupation with what-ifs to the point that real life doesn't exist, willing the phone to ring."
But her doctor did not call.
The next day, the day he was leaving, she left phone messages at his office and sent an e-mail message saying, "Don't leave without calling me with the results."
"That night I waited," she said, "jumping at every noise, not letting anyone use the phone, imagining every scenario."
Her doctor left for his vacation. He never called, not even when he returned.
The scan did not show cancer, but she could not forgive her doctor.
"This internist had been my family doctor for years," Ms. Odlum said. "This physician's wife had breast cancer and was treated by the same oncologist as me."
How could someone whose wife had breast cancer not realize the impact of being left hanging, she asked, adding, "I never spoke to him again."