The doctor I see most often is my Oncologist. I occasionally see my Primary Care Provider. I have known her for years as a colleague, we worked together for decades. She was my mom’s doctor for years, until my Mom passed away from Ovarian Cancer in 2002. She has been my doctor since then. She diagnosed me with Ovarian Cancer and guided me to choose between 2 excellent Gynecological Oncology Surgeons. I got an appointment almost immediately. ( I was diagnosed on a Friday and my appointment was on the next Monday). She is a skilled doctor and a caring person. When I am receiving chemo, she likes to back off on the frequency of my visits. Unfortunately, chemo seems to be the plan for the long term future and I have had some challenges lately which concern me such as high blood pressure, a rising creatinine and elevated cholesterol (since we stopped my statin last fall after my liver function test results skyrocketed). When I asked my Oncologist about increasing my BP med since my BP was still elevated, he said no because it would cause too much fatigue for me. My diastolic (bottom number) is still in the 90’s and my systolic (top number) is in the 150’s. My PCP agreed with me so we are going to try increasing the Carvedilol. She also has asked for me to call her office 10 days after I begin it with a progress report. Since she was officially consulted for BP management by my Oncologist 2 months ago in frustration since what they had tried was ineffective, he should be OK with this. (However, since he just said “no change” less than a month ago, I suggested to her to mention the decision to increase my BP med was a decision she and I made together.). She wanted to start Zetia to help my cholesterol and I asked her to run it by my Oncologist first. I also got a specific number for my creatinine (1.7) when we need to be concerned and need to change my plan of care. He and the NP who works with him say things like “Your labs look fine.”They both are very aware I am a RN who used to work in Critical Care. They must know when I look at my labs results, I know what those numbers should be and what is abnormal and the meaning behind them. I try to be my own patient advocate. I feel I need to see my PCP more often than every 6 months as she suggested. She said she would see me more often if need be and I said I needed to see her more often. We are going to try for an appointment in 3 months. She is fully booked so they are going to call me back. (The only day available, my sister and I are going on vacation. She is still working full time and it was a kind of magic trick to get this time off anyway.). My annual physical is booked for August, no problem there. The end of this year, my wonderful PCP is retiring. I got the impression today she believes I will stay with her group. I probably will not. She is not “in network” for my insurance. Since she is so awesome, I have never minded paying the extra money. We will see……