What happens now?
What happens now? I have just finished my treatment and want to have a reconstruction, the enc hasn’t really explained to me what happens next, I found the surgeon by going on the internet but wasn’t sure who organised it, I emailed her and she agreed to see me in clinic, do I sort it out myself or does the hospital arrange the appointment, nobody seems to be able to tell me.other than wait for your follow up appointment then we can discuss it, I need to know what’s involved before making the final decision, there seems so many different versions of whats going to happen, can anyone please enlighten me? does it hurt ? how long is the surgery, etc
Thanks
Lorri 1
Dear Lorri You may find the following publication from Breast Cancer Care helpful to read whilst you await replies from your fellow forum users. It is called ‘Breast reconstruction’ and contains information about different types of reconstruction amongst lots of other useful information, it is available to read or download via the following link:
breastcancercare.org.uk/docs/breast_reconstruction
_dec06_web_0.pdf
If you would like to discuss your queries further with one of our helpliners, you are welcome to contact our helpline on 0808 800 6000 which is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-2pm.
Kind regards
Forum Host
Breast Cancer Care
Im Gob smacked Hi Lorri
thats ridiculous you shouldnt be organising a surgeon its up to the Onc/consultant at the hospital, whoevery youve been seeing before chemo/treatment. They have to decide what the next step is and refer you to a surgeon, get back on the phone to him and demand that he makes a decision, I am so mad for you you shouldnt be worrying about it. Do you have a breast nurse or a mcmillan nurse at the hospital that you can call, you shouldnt have the stress of not knowing. Get on the phone on monday morning, you have to take this higher!!
For me i was told that surgery had to be followed quite soon after my last chemo, mine was about 7 weeks after my last chemo.
The surgeon has to liase with your Onc as they have scans/records.
I had a recon done and I can truthfully say that i really didnt have any pain and thats the honest truth.
Have you been told by the Onc that your to have surgery.
Tracey
reconstruction Hi Lorri
I had my mastectomy 2 years ago and have only just decided to go for reconstruction. However my breast surgeon said to me after my treatment had finished that he would refer me at any time when I was ready. So all I did was contact him to ask him to refer me to the plastic surgeon. Perhaps you could ring your consultant’s or oncologist’s secretary to get the ball rolling. If you want a particular plastic surgeon you may have to ask specifically for a referral to them. I have seen the plastic surgeon once and he went through the types of reconstruction and which ones he would recommend for me. He said to come and see him as many times as I want before making my final decision. I think I’m going for a diep flap as I don’t fancy an implant, but he did say that it’ll be a bit smaller than my existing 34B breast as I don’t have enough flesh! I figure anything is better than nothing!
Good luck with what you decide
fantan
Thank you all so much Thank you all for taking the time to reply, I will take all your advice and will go back and ask for the B C nurse to go through it with me in more detail, I do have a follow up appointment in april so I will ask then to refer me, I was a little unsure of the procedure and was under the impression I had to wait, but I feel I need to put closure on all of this and take the final step, but before that I need to arm myself with all the information on the before and after.
take care and yet again thankyou.