At the risk of repetition - PLEASE lodge a formal complaint. She may have been right but she wasn't qualified nor had the evidence to give a diagnosis.

I've lost count of the number of people who were wrongly told they had cancer by nurses etc.  based on hunches causing unnecessary anxiety. 

Hi Billygoat.

I agree with [@davek]‍, you were handled most unprofessionally.  

For most people (and at one time, that included me), the word cancer is so terrifying that they essentially tune out in shock once they hear the diagnosis. So ideally, the diagnosis should also be rapidly followed by an indication of prognosis or expected outcome - especially when that outcome is generally positive. 

Simply throwing out that a patient has got cancer and then leaving them to it is just unprofessional and unacceptable. 

Hi davek., after i got dressed i waited in a small cubicle a lady came in in white smock i guess specialist, she introduced her self we talk a wile (i guess she was working round to the main subject) she said I'm very sorry but it's Cancer, i said that's OK i already know the nurse told me she said would you excuse me for a minute, she went to the nurse and she played,, HELL,, and she wasn't very nice about it either then she came back to me and apologised i wasn't really that bothered it just confirmed what i already thought,.

Billy 

Hi,

I asked the Gynaecologist (who was inviting me to talk about my holiday) what he was seeing and thinking as he examined me. He said cervical cancer / ovarian cancer.

He sent me for MRI and CT Scan, and in the week before that, my suspicion was raised that perhaps things were looking inauspicious.

I was formally told by the consultant 10 days after the MRI that it was stage 4b cervical cancer which had spread to other organs.

It was a HUGE shock which I am still trying to recover from, but I can't think of a nice way of telling someone they have incurable cancer and I would hate for that to be (part of) my job, so I take my hat off to people who do this all day.

Having said that, there is clearly a communication problem in the (in many ways) wonderful NHS - after being told on the phone that... I could not be told anything over the phone, I was told to bring someone to my appointment (uh-oh) and sent an SMS appointment reminder stating I was meeting with the "Oncology Surgery team". A bit of a give-away. In the event, things turned out to be much worse as they could not helped me due to the advanced stage of my cancer. Sigh.

Best wishes to all on this forum and those who support us through this strange journey which never shows on Trip Advisor...

Four years ago I had chronic chest pain. I was seen in a Hospital Primary Centre and given meds. The next day I saw my GP as I was still in discomfort. He requested a scan, when it was found I had a gall bladder full of stones. After the scan the sonographer told me to book an appooitnment with my GP for a week after. A week later, I saw my GP and was told that I had a 'mass' and that it would need further investigations. No-one mentioned cancer until I was introduced to a Cancer Nurse. I had kidney cancer. A tumour that surrounded my left kidney, 3 x the size of the kidney itself. It had eaten up the adrenal gland also. They thought it was in my spleen but luckily this was not the case. I had a 6.5 hour operation and was left with what they call a mercedes benz scar. The cancer (grade 3 malignant) was all removed luckily but I have been left with a massive double hernia (stomach and bowel) which requires surgery itself. I am currently waiting for a date after being cancelled twice. I am having my annual CT Scan today and am seeing my Consultant in December for the results. Hopefully I am still in remission. It was 3 weeks from start to hospital admission for the nephrectomy.

Hi There how soon after your scans were u given an appointment to go back! I had mri and biopsy last Saturday and this Tuesday just got a letter to go back to gyne not untill 19th November everyone is saying oh must be ok then but I'm not so sure! As it's 3 weeks away 

Hi Ossie,

Pauline hasn’t been logged in for a while, this is a very old thread, so I thought I’d answer. 

You are right not to read too much into how long you have to wait between scans and appointments,  especially when biopsies have been taken as the results can take around ten days to come back. Waiting times vary depending on how busy the hospital is and on staff availability - especially around school holidays. There’s also a national shortage of diagnostic staff which is slowing things down (CRUK is campaigning on the issue with a public petition).

I hope the news is good.

Good luck!

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My husband was never told that he had kidney cancer - we read that he had TCCs in his kidney in a discharge notice in June 2019 but really did not understand the implications. A multi disiplinary meeting had decided not to tell him even though he was an inpatient at the time! Instead they made an outpatient appointment for him 8 weeks later in August. At that meeting the Consultant's notes say " Long chat with patient, wife and daughter - no notes available".- so nothing about the kidney cancer. We knew he had non invasive bladder cancer but no treatment for that was given and by the time of the meeting he was too weak for anything. He had also been dehyrated in hospital during his stay which resulted in an acute kidney injury and delirium, so from June to August he had no idea even where he was. In September when he was back in hospital with haematuria, we were finally told it was his kidney which was bleeding not his bladder and he was  sent home to bleed to death. He bled for 80hours and then died.

What a coincidence! My cat has always been nudging under my arm, and breast for past three years. I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and it has spread to my lymph nodes. Hope you are doing well now?