Thanks to anyone who can offer some insight
My mum (58) was falsely diagnosed with IBS by her GP and a couple months later ended up in the emergency room with crippling pain, an intestinal blockage, severe bloating they thought was ascites, sepsis, coffe ground bile by the buckets, bowels were malfunctioning and CT / MRI found a large adnexal mass. She was admitted for surgival evaluation and deteriorated quite quickly until they rushed her in to theatre middle of the night and gave her a stoma and took fluid and biopsies which led to her improving to the point after a lengthy stay in itu and ward where they let her discharge herself even though they wanted to her to stay. Her bowels seem to be working ok again (they were very surprised) so the stoma has allowed it to heal (mass remains)
11 days after the op and a few days before she asked to leave they told her that the mass is indeed cancerous but that it seems local (no secondary tumours) and that her various fluids they extracted from her lungs and stomach tested clear for cancer, she was told she would require an op to remove the mass and medicinal treatment (chemo).
The nhs was amazing up to this point she but since the cancer diagnosis they seem to have somewhat lost interest and urgency. She was told by a doctor to return to ward today to be admitted but after arrival we were told it was a mistake by a doctor who did not understand the MDT and she was just going to clinic for a discussion .... that meeting had apparently been cancelled anyway but noone informed her.
They then told us she has an appointment in 1 week with her consultant and she should have received a letter (no letter) so they can explain their decisions and results in more detail, they could not contact either the consultant or his secretary to find out any additional info. The doctor we saw basically had no information to give us at all, we asked if we should be concerned, if the cancer was aggressive and if waiting so long could cause any issues but the doctors refused to say anything and we asked if my mum would still be admitted for an operation (she is petrified and suffering extreme anxiety over this) the doctor just shrugged. It felt like a giant blow off to be honest like we were a nuisance for showing up when we were told to show up ....
My questions are ....
Is it a good sign that they are in no rush to remove the cancer / begin treatment? Does the nhs prioritize more dangerous cancers for treatment or later stage cancer that are more likely to spread (bad histologies?) or does it not matter?
Will the fact my mum wasnt referred by her GP work against her due to targets?
The 31 day wait time target for first treatment does it begin from when she was informed in hospital by the MDT team who came to see her that it was indeed cancerous mass or will the clock start ticking from when she eventually sees the consultant as an outpatient since they already cancelled once and added a week?
Is there any advice anyone can give? obviously we have read horror stories about people waiting months for cancer treatment to begin and if we got lucky (we think we did after the false IBS diagnosis) and the cancer has been caught before it has gone metastatic then we obviously want treatment asap.
We just do not know how to read what happened. They went from being attentive and wanting to keep her in ward to as soon as she discharged herself because she felt she would heal better at home (she has) to poor communication, cancelled appointments, delays and no answers to quite simple questions it was quite an eye opener.
Do people who have more experience of the NHS and cancer services think that the MDT is unconcerned by her cancer or is she just a victim of targets ?
Sorry for the essay the 180 has thrown us through a loop as it were and the confusion is very stressful to my mother,
