The oncologist wasn't that concerned that a December 2023 CT scan showed that a cyst growing from the pancreas had appeared since the previous CT scan 6 months earlier. In fact, he also didn't think the next one was necessary for another 12 months!

I was not convinced, saying I thought I wanted more information before then. He then suggested I could discuss it with my surgeon if I wished, which I did.

His Visit Report put a different spin on our exchange:

• "I reviewed the recent scans which likely showed benign changes near the pancreas. I will have him review this with ... his surgeon in the coming weeks."

Then I recalled some of his previous lapses.

• He scheduled the chemotherapy a month before it began. It included two tablets in the morning and evening daily and an infusion each Tuesday for three weeks, then a week off before beginning the next cycle, for a total of six. (Of course, I was not able to complete even the first one.)

However, he didn't think to schedule the implanting of a mediport in the chest, through which the infusions would be made, until three days after the first infusion. By the time I realized this, it was too late to schedule it earlier, and I had to undergo the first infusion through a vein in my arm, which was quite painful.

• Some time after I was hospitalized, he notified me that there was a possible genetic mutation that could cause an adverse reaction to a chemotherapy component, but he had had it tested and found it did not affect me.

I later learned that the test had not been ordered until after I had begun exhibiting the troubling symptoms that landed me in the hospital. And the results were not known until I had already been in the hospital for more than two days.

Fortunately, a mutation had not been the cause of my disaster, which has not yet been determined, but that was not known before chemotherapy had begun.