Why are we waiting?

Perhaps it is futile at this point to ask why it took so long to discover the Melanoma had metastasised to Dad’s brain, as it is unlikely that the outcome could have been very different. I cannot understand it though and it still upsets me if I think about it. I am not a doctor, but my desperate search for information made two things clear to me. Firstly, Melanoma frequently metastasises to the brain (in over 50% of cases according to one article I read in a medical journal) Secondly, there are various common symptoms, several of which were evident in Dad. When I asked the oncologist why Dad had not had a full body scan sooner he told me that they do not scan people on the basis of it being ‘nice to know what was going on’ and that those symptoms could have meant many things. I understand the cost implications of frivolous scanning. What I don’t understand is how it could be considered frivolous when Dad was a Melanoma patient whose cancer was known at the time to be uncontrolled. I am not an ambulance chaser, but I am bitterly disappointed that Dad had to suffer for two months before being given any relief. For my own sake and largely because it brings Dad no help, I realise I must let this go.