I think this is very unfair and verges on being unethical...
..It's the absence of true informed consent that pisses me off. Then your general misery is discounted as being unusual, passing, all in your head and we don't want to frighten people away from the best chance of survival on offer. Humph.
OMG YAS. This.
Thank you! I am so glad I made this discussion because I’ve honestly been saying this exact thing to everyone who would vaguely listen and they basically wrote me off as being paranoid/fragile. I could not agree more @@Zoffiel. At every single major meeting with either oncologist radiographer surgeon whoever, I swear they all just gave me this practised polished totally abridged version of what would REALLY happen to me. And I of course was too heavily fogged/overwhelmed/exhausted to be sharp and on the ball enough to ask more detailed questions and really push for answers at those times. As a result I ended up knowing about 30% of what I now know is the truth about all of those treatments I endured. And I get that they don’t want to get sued for being seen to discourage me from having potentially life saving treatment. But why can’t they be more honest and detailed and REAL about it? Why can’t they tell me the full gamete of what having an axillary clearance means upfront for example, or what ‘some joint stiffness’ really translates to? I would have done things very differently if I had been truly informed! I would have been less afraid of the unknown. I would have made decisions coming from a more solid place rather than that awful fear-based grey wobbly zone I’m sure you’ve all been in.
I do think it’s verging on unethical. It’s like they omit the details just enough to make you take the pill, and keep you alive. Great, very grateful my treatment worked and I didn’t die. But it’s like selling me a car and not telling me the fuel system is gonna crap out in six months. It’s dishonest somehow.
