Hi Jenny,

I am so sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. You ask how long you have to wait for an urgent referral. I am tempted to say, ’how long is a piece of string?’ - this varies depending upon the type of cancer you have and whereabouts in the country you reside.

Did your surgeon not give you any idea of how long you might have to wait? They usually do. I am surprised that he wasn’t able to tell you the type and stage from the sample sent to pathology after you had your surgery. Once he has these results he will usually discuss them with his MDT team before getting back to you. This is a multi-disciplinary team who are concerned in your care throughout your cancer journey. At these meetings they decide upon the best treatment options for you. Your consultant can then discuss this with you at your next visit, so it usually saves time in the long run.

You may be waiting a little longer because of your referral to a haematologist. Perhaps he wants you to see them before he decides on your treatment options? This is all just surmise. I know that the wait for results about neck cancer, oesophageal cancer and other cancers in that region, do seem to take a little longer than that for some other cancers, but I’m not sure how much longer.

Waiting for results and to get a treatment plan in place is always a scary time, so I fully appreciate how worried you are. It must be human nature, but most of us tend to fear the worst before we know exactly what we have. Fortunately, this seldom turns out to be the case. Hopefully you still have many years ahead of you. If you are so worried, it wouldn’t do any harm to phone either the surgeon’s secretary or your specialist nurse and ask how long this is likely to take.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you get on. We are always here for you, whenever you want to talk.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

Hi Jenny and welcome to the forum.

I'm not a medic and only have my own experience to go by. As Jolamine says "it varies". Im my own case I was told the type of cancer I had when the results of my first biopsy came back about a week after I had biopsies taken. I was given the staging after my first CT scan - the staging depends on how far the cancer has spread. Stage 1 usually means it is restricted to the site of the first cancer and nearby lymph nodes. Stage 4 means it has spread to distant lymph nodes and organs. 

How long individual patients have depends on so many things. In general, the earlier a diagnosis is made, the better the outcome is likely to be. The type of cancer has a big influence, lymphoma survival rates are far better than many other cancer types. Age, co-morbidities and general health can also have an impact. There's also a lot of luck involved too - some people's bodies respond better to treatment than others.

Sometimes doctors are reluctant to give out details until they are absolutely sure to avoid causing unnecessary worry or giving false hope. Other doctors need prodding with a few questions before they will give out information. On this forum in the past ee've had patients and family members complaining both that the doctor gave out too much and too little information. I told my consultant I wanted all the information as soon as it was available and he was almost brutally frank from then onwards. Not everyone wants them to be so direct - who can blame them?

Good luck!

Dave

Hi, update on my post i waited a week and then saw my dr and mentioned about waiting for an appointment 10 mins after I left the hospital rang, I had an appointment for the next daythe consultant is quite confident I have follicular lymphoma but needed to speak to his specialist team, I had a bone marrow extraction the same week, a very pleasant experience (not) which I am told will not be the last one I will be having, so tomorrow Monday I go to get my results and if I will be on waiting or chemo, it’s early days  and my attitude is no point in worrying as it don’t change the outcome, it’s so hard for anyone with any type of cancer but I am pushing myself to be positive and stay mentally strong and I may have a meltdown now and again and shed a few tears, but I love my life and I intend to fight to stay around, thank you for  anyone who has replied.

Hi Jenny,

I am so glad that you discussed the waiting time for your appointment with your doctor. It sounds as if it certainly had the desired effect and I am hopeful when you say that your consultant  is ‘quite confident’.

I shall be thinking of you tomorrow and hope that all goes well. I especially hope that you can continue to enjoy life for a long time yet. Despite your positive attitude, there will likely be meltdowns and tears along the way. Tears are a good release and the meltdowns are only natural given the circumstances. We are always here for you whatever the outcome.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

Jenny,

Good luck for today :-)

Best wishes
Dave