Hello

I met with a consultant yesterday to understand the surgical plan for dealing with an unidentified mass near my ovary which is likely malignant.  He's hopeful it's stage 1a, possibly b or c but can't tell until the biopsy.  I've had an ultrasound an an MRI to get to this point.

The appointment was private through work medical insurance (I'm due to see him on the NHS next Wednesday).  He said I should ring his secretary to find out dates for surgery but when I rang her this morning, she said his diary was full and couldn't tell me when he would be available but as it's suspected cancer then it's urgent.

This might seem a bit trivial but I'm now confused about how urgent urgent really is?  He implied he'd be able to see me faster privately than on the NHS but also said that it would be a maximum of 4 to 6 weeks on the NHS.  He also gave me the spiel that by using my medical insurance it would free up the NHS spot for someone else to use - which I agree with and I'm lucky that I have the benefit through my job to do so.

I just wondered if anyone has a rough idea of how quickly a suspected stage one is normally dealt with on the NHS?  I'm feeling a bit unsettled today as I confided in a work colleague that I was going to be off and she said her sister died of ovarian cancer a couple of years ago as she'd been fobbed off repeatedly at GP level and by the time she went private it was too late.  I know mine has been identified as hopefully stage one but consultant also said he couldn't rule out that it's not a secondary caused by a primary elsewhere eg in my bowel.

Any thoughts would be most reassuring.

Thank you in advance