Newbie

Hi,
I was diagnosed with grade 3 invasive breast cancer (24mm) last Thursday. Feeling kind of lost. We just moved to England from Texas (husband is military) a couple months ago.
I was diagnosed and will have may CT scan and MRI at one hospital and then receive treatment at another hospital. The hospital that I was diagnosed at said that I will be receiving chemo before surgery and that I’ll start chemo shortly after meeting with the oncologist (a week from Friday). I mentioned to the breast care nurse that i will be receiving my treatment at a different hospital and she just said that I have to tell my oncologist out during my appointment. I hope it doesn’t slow down my timeline.
All this has me stressed…I’m so exhausted :frowning:

hi bonski,
welcome
treatments are done at whatever hospital specialises. i am being treated at 2 , one is the main place and the other ‘delivers’ the treatment. i think there may be a few that have been treated like this, i dont think its unusual.
this is a good place to start, there will be lots of ladies in similar situations that you can chat with.
i had grade 2 and 3 bc and had mastectomy and nodes clearance, followed by chemo, followed by radiotherapy, followed by hormone therapy. i am just about to start rads, so i have had op and chemo and its just something that has to be done to get well again.
you sound like you need to offload, do you have support from friends or family here or are you new to everything in england?
any questions that you have, or if you want to moan or just tell someone something, this is a good place to do it. Feel free to ask away,
angie xx

Hi Bonski
It sounds like you have the same as me. I had grade 3 invasive (33mm). I was diagnosed in October last year and I had 2 operations, 6 sessions of chemo, 20 days of radiotherapy and now on Tamoxifen. I had my chemo at one hospital and radio at another. My husband was in the Army and we moved to England when he came out but we only moved from Scotland. How long will you be in England? I have a friend that moved from Scotland and now lives in Texas. Just write down any questions you have so you remember them and ask everything you want to know. It is a scarey time without being in a strange new place that works different from home. Good Luck

Following on from angie, and hopefully reassure you, I had surgery at one hospital bone scan at another and though I had my first two consultations with onc at hospital that did surgery, receive the chemo at another. They are all part of the same trust and everything is coordinated. Not sure why BCN said you need to tell onc. As a general rule, it isn’t the patient’s responsibility to coordinate their treatment, not in NHS. I can believe it might happen in US, however.

Hi Bonski68. Being diagnosed with breast cancer is upsetting enough without being thousands of miles away from home.

The people on here are very supportive, so any time you feel like having a rant or air your worries, just post xx

hi
just to say, i think you have to tell the onc whats going on ‘just in case’ it hasnt been noticed in yur notes. you do have to assume a little bit of resposiblity to keep them all co-ordinated, nothing drastic, its just better to keep an eye on them/.
angie xx

Thanks for everyone’s replies. I found out that there is a patient advocate on our base that handles all those things. I’m so relieved. Had my CT scan yesterday afternoon and MRI this morning…now more waiting.