I was initially diagnosed in 2015, had an axillary clearance and local side excision, chemotherapy, dad's and herceptin. I have had numerous health problems since then including lymphodoema, cellulitis, neurological problems and sepsis which have left me disabled. At the end of April I was diagnosed with a recurrence of the cancer and I was given a bone and CT scan which confirmed it thankfully had not spread beyond the breast. I made an appointment with a reconstruction surgeon who told me no reconstruction could be done due to my previous scar damage, lymphodoema, and neurological condition -I was devastated. I had then only one appointment before my operation with the BCN to discuss the mastectomy (although I had to wait two months for my operation without seeing anyone) and will have a post surgery appointment with the surgeon and a prosthesis fitting appointment and that will be it. No counselling of any kind offered. The surgery was supposed to be a day case ( despite me also having a breast reduction), but due to a reaction to the anaesthetic I was in 10 days. Another surgeon (not mine) had a go at me on the ward for taking up a surgical bed because I could not walk and said I should be in a cottage hospital. It seems that the health service trivialises this operation. You feel like you are on a conveyor belt -your breast removed and pushed out the door and left to get on with it on your own. I don't know when I am ever going to get over this but I feel brutalised by the system which does not seem to see you as a person.
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