Comment by Zanfa

Some notes from my father's experience over 10 years:

1) Doctors are human and make mistakes or overlook things all the time, so you yourself are ultimately responsible for double checking every result and lab test, following up with questions and getting second opinions when something doesn't add up or make sense. It can be as silly as a radiologist looking for changes between 2 identical images vs comparing with the previous scan.

2) Rare presentations happen. Just because some symptoms are a low probability occurrence, they still happen to somebody, so don't let anything be dismissed due to odds without further analysis or imaging.

3) Palliative care can have a major impact on the quality of life when there's nothing else to do. Nurses were more helpful for figuring out what to ask for than doctors.