No Diagnosis? ADVOCATE!

APPOINTMENT PHONE CALL TO DOCTOR'S OFFICE**

Me: Hi, I need an appointment with a urologist, please.

Them: You can’t see a urologist until you see your primary care doctor.

Me: Okay. I think this is urgent. When can I see my PCP?

Them: Your PCP’s first available appointment is in two weeks.

Me: (after a pause) Okay. I’ll wait.

That was the moment I did what many people do—I waited.

I noticed something was wrong and called my doctor. What followed wasn’t care; it was process. Refer here. Wait. Refer there. Wait again. Each step felt procedural, detached from the reality that something in my body was changing quickly.

Long before I had a diagnosis, I knew something wasn’t right. Rare cancers don’t announce themselves loudly. They don’t trigger alarms or urgency. And when answers are slow, vague, or deferred, advocacy stops being optional—it becomes self-preservation.

This post is about what it means to speak up before you’re given permission to worry. I will talk about why action matters even when no one has given a medical named the thing growing in your body. This blog is about how waiting—quietly, politely—can cost more time than you think you have. PSCC moved quickly, my decisions on how to get an accurate diagnosis were my responsibility and no one else. I had to take charge and take action.