I learned quickly through this experience that you need to own your treatment and medical care. By staying this, I don’t mean you should second guess or doubt your doctor’s and nurses, who have many years of experience and education. You should, however, understand your situation and know that nobody will watch out for your best interest as much as yourself. My oncologist group was full of wonderful nurses that would do whatever they could to help. The group, however, was run like a factory, with various departments responsible for their own thing (lab, Dr., Scheduling, etc…). My first interaction went something like this:

Oncologist: We are calling because we got a referral and would like to schedule you to see Dr. Smith. Looks like he is scheduled a month or so out, would April 8th work?

Me: umm..yea, that would work, do I just need to talk to my GP to see if they want something more urgent?

Oncologist: Oh, yes, I see this is marked urgent, can you come in tomorrow?

Me: ok

This is what I mean by taking control of your health and care. I knew from reading up that I had. High grade lymphoma, if it was burkitts, it may double every 24 hours. It was probably best not to wait a month to be seen at the Oncologist.