Breast Care nurse
Breast Care nurse Hello everyone, this is my first post.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer about 11 months ago at my annual examination. Everything then happened so fast I didn’t know what or who to ask about anything but after initial surgery I got an appointment with an Oncologist.
She mentioned something about a breast care nurse but at the time I wasn’t really taking things in as she had been telling me about what treatment I would be getting etc.
I never thought any more about it but recently I have been having problems for the first time hopefully only due to zoladex or tamoxifen side effects and a friend of a friend who is a nurse said I should ask my breast care nurse.
I said I didn’t have one but she says I should have. I have read some things on these forums and seen people mention “your BC nurse” but wasn’t really sure whether everyone has one or what.
I had been unable to log in to ask but now that’s been fixed and I can so… should I have a breast care nurse at my local hospital or surgery? If so who should I ask about it?
What I wanted to ask her was about the Zoladex. My doctor said it would stop my periods and it did for 9 or so months but I have had bleeding for 3 weeks heavily then slightly less for a couple and I wondered if many others had this. I have an appointment to see about this tomorrow at the clinic.
anne
Breast Care Nurse Hi,
I was diagnosed on 21st April had WLE now going for radiotherapy planning tomorrow.
All the way through my journey from the results of my routine mammogram there has been the Breast Care Nurse. Not only there for me but my husband too. Whilst in hospital one of them sat for an hour just talking through the continuing process. Excellent service from them.
You can bring up your hospital on this web site and fing out if they have a breast care nurse. If not perhaps you could talk to the practice nurse at your surgery. I have also talked to a breast care nurse at breast cancer care when I wanted to speak to someone outside of my local hospital regarding a trial I was asked to take part in. (which I did).
I am sorry if you do not have the support of a Beast Care Nurse, but find some other way to have someone on the ‘outside’ for you.
Good luck
eileenmary
You should have one Hi Anne
Yes, you should definitely have a BCN, they are usually allocated via your hospital. We live in a very remote area so my BCN is a Macmillan nurse, I met her the first time at diagnosis. As a nurse and a specialist in another area of surgery, I was used to attending OPA’s where patients received a diagnosis of Ca, so as far as I am aware a BCN should have ‘ideally’ been there when you were diagnosed?
Either phone your GP they will know the contact details, check with your Onc or even your Surgeons team.
Good luck I hope you manage to track her down 
Lynn
Hi Anne
I can’t believe you haven’t been offered this absolute basic support!
I met my BC Nurse before having the tests, she explained them to me, was with us when I got the results, talked to us afterwards to make sure we understood all the surgeon had said.
I saw her regularly at each visit to outpatients, she visited me on the ward after surgery and arranged my prosthesis’. She gave me advice on what bras to buy and where to get them. She held my hand when I was in bits, she was my rock for several wks, on the end of the phone mon to fri. She chased up my later results when they were delayed.
She gave it to me straight from day one, I would trust her with anything. I am gob smacked that you have got this far on your own. What authority are you with? You must contact your hospital cancer services and demand to know why you have not been allocated a BC nurse.
Failing that, contact Macmillan. I also have a Macmillan nurse arranged through my GP surgery. She is amazing and has done as much for me as my BC nurse, who incidentally, I don’t see anymore as I am now past that point of ‘need’.
Please get sorted and let us know how you get on.
Irene
Thanks for the replies. A couple of hours after my surgery I was visited by someone who I think may have been a BC nurse but I was very dopey at the time and don’t remember much about it so I don’t really know if I was actually allocated a BC nurse or not.
That was about 11 months ago now and I haven’t seen a BC nurse since but I haven’t needed to know anything until now. I wasn’t aware that I should have one until finding out for certain on here.
I have an appointment tomorrow to see about this bleeding so after that I will go and find out.
anne
I asked about the BC nurse today and they were horrified that I didn’t have one. They said I had obviously slipped through the net somewhere. They are going to get in touch with me tomorrow or Friday.
I went to my appointment and was told that Tamoxifen can cause such problems as bleeding but I’ve to go for a small op in about 6 weeks or sooner if poss to see what’s going on with the bleeding. Not sure what to think about that.
Any bleeding needs investigated they said.