Wonder if anyone can throw some light on this. So I am waiting for the op date which has been put on hold due to Covid and today I get a call from an Operation Assessment nurse. We spent 10 mins going through all the questions and I am booked in to give some blood tomorrow. I am a bit puzzeled as to what is going on here, surely this should have been scheduled with an actual op date? Keen to speak to anyone who has experienced this or understands more about this.
Wonder if anyone can throw some light on this. So I am waiting for the op date which has been put on hold due to Covid and today I get a call from an Operation Assessment nurse. We spent 10 mins going through all the questions and I am booked in to give some blood tomorrow. I am a bit puzzeled as to what is going on here, surely this should have been scheduled with an actual op date? Keen to speak to anyone who has experienced this or understands more about this.
I am also awaiting mastectomy with immediate implant reconstruction for DCIS. My diagnosis has taken months and months as it is a big area and I had to have multiple biopsies before they were satisfied that it was DCIS. Now they have done an MRI and think they may have found an invasive bit, so the goal posts keep moving. Very worrying as I've been in the dark since end of Feb. The department I am with had a meeting about restarting reconstructive surgery last week but have not yet been given to the go ahead to resume as it's "not safe". The surgeon called me last week to say that ideally he'd like to operate on me at end of June. I just spoke to them again today and they say they will update me next week. At the moment they are only booking operating lists for 15 days ahead so that the patients can self isolate for 14 days prior. I imagine if you have been invited for blood tests they are planning on operating about 2 weeks later. It may be different where you are though. Each NHS Trust seems to have a slightly different approach. It's the waiting and uncertainty which is doing my head in.
I just spotted that you wrote this post on Monday so I hope you got some more clarity when you went for the blood test. Let me know how it goes. I am getting my treatment in Burnley.
I'm sorry you are waiting so long, and here's me complaining!
Unfortunately there is nothing to really report. I went for the blood test which was to identify my blood group. The nurse wasn't aware that I didn't have an op date. My mother has convinced herself that I will be getting it in at least two weeks since going through the pre assessment which to be fair would probably be right in normal circumstances........but it's not normal is it. I believe these are just processes that are driven by some unknown hospital metric and nothing to do with whether you have a date or not and are simply not joined up. I'm sorry about your recent possible (invasive) diagnosis. It's hard enough being told that you have a large area of DCIS and then this. Fingers crossed that it's not and all will be well once we get our boobs lopped off! Zvigo has had her op so hopefully all NHS Trusts will follow suit. I will update you if I hear anything my end (I live in Northumberland).
Not much of an update but might be worth following up with your own hospital. I spoke to the breast nurse today about timescales. There are still no plans as of this moment to start reconstruction but what she did say was as of next week they were starting to do some ops as a trial in one other hospital (using metrics like the patient self isolating for 14 days, all staff to be swabbed prior to ops etc) and if this was shown to be successful they may consider restarting some operations using this technique at my local hospital. Obviously there is no guarantees that this would include reconstruction but at least its a move towards progressing surgeries. She told me to ring in a couple of weeks time and check in. I know we are all living under different Trusts but you would assume they all think along the same lines. Might be worth asking?
Thanks for the update. I have a phone appointment with my surgeon next weds to make a plan. They have not been given the go ahead for reconstructions yet so I guess it will be Hobson's choice. Do I go for mastectomy with reconstruction much later (who knows when?) or wait for immediate reconstruction to resume and risk more invasive disease developing while I wait? It's horrible. I am stopping clinical work after today (though will still be doing admin from home and teaching) as my head is now done in.
It's terrible that due to the pandemic you are having to make such a choice when all you want is one operation to get it over with. I guess all you can do is take direction from your consultant tomorrow and weigh up the risks along with your own sanity.
I finally have a date for surgery! They have resumed implant reconstructions. 1st July, 2 weeks from today. What a relief. I have to self isolate now so am trying to find ways to keep fit at home whilst helping my husband not to go stir crazy.
OH MY GOD I am sooooo happy for you truly, what a relief!!
No I don't have any news from my end other than they are trialing ops this week so it looks like my trust is behind Burnley by a few weeks. It's good to hear that other areas are now starting up. Hopefully I won't have to wait too much longer.
