My husband has survived 4 years post surgery and treatments. I had no problem with his Oncologist. She was honest and helpful and discovered some other underlying issues, leading to his fatigue and anemia.

In this journey, we now realize that his Radiologist did not give us all the information about the after effects of these treatments.

We continue to see his cancer surgeon every 6 months. It was during his visit a year ago when I asked him a question about my husband’s decaying teeth that he referred us to the dental clinic.
He is always uncomfortable discussing all the aftermath of cancer treatments.

I also feel that we did not get the support we needed.
I have worked in a medical environment previously in my life, but I was not told all the information I needed in order to correctly care for his G tube when issues occurred.
We also were not told about palliative care. It was nay last week when there was a conversation here about palliative care that I investigated and found out that that care does exist at our cancer facility. After several phone calls, I was able to make an appointment and we have an appointment today.

Other caregivers do not know or realize wat I did and I worry about them getting the support they need.

Thank you so much for phrasing everything as honestly as you did. I'm just starting out with the possibility of radiation. I have a non-aggressive cancer in my salivary gland. I had surgery and was then asked to speak with the radiation oncologist. I knew nothing going into this. The rad. oncologist pretty much told me nothing and I walked out of there knowing that they would make me a "special cap" and that I should see the dentist. Radiation would be the usual 5days/6 wks. I was told nothing more and asked to notify him of my decision. When I emailed back and said that I thought I needed to wait until I felt stronger from my surgery, I was then given the SOP you mentioned. No, it needs to start in eight weeks etc. Then when I saw the nurse in the ENT's office, she asked me who I had to help me. Help for what? She said I may need someone to drive me for the treatments. I'm 74 y/o, worked hard raising my family and never had help. So every day since that day, I have researched radiation and salivary gland cancer online. This forum has been very helpful. I never knew about any of the possible side effects, nor how long they can possibly last. I might be reading too much into everything, but I really feel people should be educated about what's possible. I wish you the best of luck.