Hello,
I was diagnosed in April, have been through a round of chemotherapy (mostly successful), which I finished on the 8th August. According to the oncologist, surgery is done six weeks after the last dose of chemotherapy.
However, I haven’t heard from the breast surgeon (who did the diagnosis) since I got the diagnosis in April. I’ve only seen the oncologist. I don’t have any idea of what surgery they might do, whether they will be able to reconstruct it if they need to remove a lot, or anything like that. There was some doubt when it was diagnosed over whether they would be able to reconstruct (though the tumour has almost disappeared, so I’m hoping this isn’t a problem).
Is it normal to have so little contact with the breast consultant? The nurses phone occasionally, but I thought there would be a bit more contact. In theory, they ought to be operating in about a fortnight, but if they’re intending to do this they’re leaving things very late.
I was actually hoping to change surgeon because of multiple problems with this one - he misdiagnosed the tumour as a cyst back in November, he leans on me when he examines me, he looks at my partner and not at me when he speaks, and he delivered the diagnosis as if he was reading a bus timetable. But I’m worried that there won’t be time to sort things out if they leave it all too late.
Thank you in advance (and to the kind people who replied to my last post - the conversation was locked before I managed to get back to say thank you).
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Hello,
I hope this helps a little bit. I was diagnosed in March and havnt seen my breast surgeon. Im seeing her tomorrow for the first time and finish chemotherapy next friday (yay!)
I contacted the BCN about some side effects I was having but was told by her “we fade into the background when you are going through chemotherapy” which was really upsetting for me as I have felt like ive not had support.
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Hi @blueparakeet
I think you should contact your BCN as you are now finished with chemo and should be coming back onto their radar . It’s not unreasonable for you to get answers to those questions and they should be able to check for you that you are on the list for surgery - I think we all have that background worry that we might have got lost in the system. They may also be able to advise you re changing surgeons / a second opinion - definitely best if you can have someone you trust . Xx
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I’m on a similar timeline to you and halfway through my chemo the oncologist contacted the breast surgeon to let him know when my chemo was ending. I saw him a week before my last chemo and he scheduled in the surgery for 4 weeks later. I would encourage you to contact them and chase it up, Emma
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Hi there,
Thank you for all the replies. It looks as though I should have been contacted well before now. I’ve finally got an appointment next week, though I don’t know when they’ll do surgery. I had hoped to be able to change surgeon, but it’s getting so last minute that I think that’s doubtful.
It seems to me as though, at least with our hospital trust, patients have to keep track of their own care and organise the specialists (if they can actually get through to them). I’ve had to do rather a lot of arranging and checking. I thought they had admin staff to do that…
@glitteryrainbow - our BCNs are a more active than that - they do phone from time to time, and give moral support. I didn’t ask them about side effects, but you should be able to get advice if you need it.
Thank you all again!!
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