I had a right mastectomy and total lymph node removal yesterday. No drain. I have to take the dressing off after six days. My surgery was delayed for six months after diagnosis because I’d had two minor heart attacks (NSTEMI) in February. When I went to the outpatient appointment mid August,after two pre op assessments, to sign the consent form for 31st. August the surgeon casually mentioned the chest infection I’d had in May when I’d had a lot of tests. He didn’t say anything in response to my “What chest infection”. The next thing I knew was an appointment for another CT scan. After that scan, two days before my planned op I had a phone call asking if I could go to outpatients as soon as possible. The “chest infection” I’d never had was a lung lesion on the left side. After he’d left the room the BCN who I’d never seen before told me my condition was “terminal, treatable but not cureable. The problem with holidays needing to be taken may be why that surgeon had two six week holidays in six months. Initially I had a dedicated BCN except she didn’t tell me she would be on Maternity Leave before my op ( I’m not very observant and thought she was overweight) . She informed me by phone, sent a load of leaflets by post but didn’t tell me who was taking over from her. It was disorganised to put it politely. My few calls weren’t always answered and when they were I got the distinct impression I was a nuisance. The wonderful local cancer support charity got me a second surgeon and tried without success to get me a dedicated BCN. By then my trust in the breast surgery department was not good. I had thoracic surgery at another hospital. The specialist nurse there was totally different and gave me the results of the biopsies over the phone. All the cancerous tissue had been removed, the biopsies elsewhere in the lung and lymph nodes were clear. Also the two cancers were unconnected. As my second surgeon said I was very lucky. I’d told him about the nurses ‘diagnosis’ the first time I saw him as with that prognosis I was seriously considering not having any sort of treatment. He said nothing about the nurse then but when I saw him to again sign a consent form I asked him if the lung lesion was why she said what she had. He just said yes. After my lung surgery there was a gap of three months when I heard nothing from them. I eventually phoned and suddenly it was all rush. The lung biopsy results had gone to the first surgeon/ his secretary and not been forwarded. Sorry I seem to have poured out my life story. I hope I’ve posted in the right place.
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