Well, it looks as if I might be back on the roller coaster again.
Having had a right mastectomy for a local recurrence a couple of years ago and having had the full works of chemo, 3 surgical procedures, targeted and hormone therapy prior to that, I went to the GP to check enlarged lymph glands following a COVID booster, which have remained enlarged for 10 weeks, and she was concerned by a couple of lumps in my , normally very lumpy, left breast. There is a 7week waiting list for urgent breast clinic referrals at my area hospital and so I am feeling hyper anxious again.
I am wondering whether or not to book into a private one stop breast clinic but am not sure whether or not the NHS would accept any tests that were carried out or would then give treatment which I couldn't fund myself. Has anybody had experience of this?
Best wishes to everyone who is going through tests and treatment.
Love and hugs to all
WMK
Hi WMK
I am sorry you are needing investigations on your ‘good’ breast. That must be so dispiriting when you have been through so much already. 7 weeks does sounds an unacceptably long time to wait for an appointment. It’s definitely worth contacting them to make sure they understand you have been waiting a long time, you have had cancer previously and are understandably anxious, and that you are interested in being offered short notice appointments if they have a cancellation. Given you have been treated in the last 5 years, you should have the ability to contact the breast care nurses to discuss your worries.
I can’t offer any advice on going private. I have had other things done privately (hip replacements) and there was no join up back to the nhs other than the discharge letter being added to my personal record. Of course if there’s nothing adverse found it would give you earlier reassurance, but I expect if something was found you would still be subject to their current waiting lists.
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I have metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer, in remission
Hi, I had my treatment privately through my work's health insurance although some of it was in the NHS hospital. In my experience the join up between the two is a bit hit and miss. The surgeon is good at updating my GP, the oncologist not so good.
I do think 7 weeks is an unacceptable waiting time, so I really would suggest pushing, calling your previous BCN as Coddfish suggested and calling the hospital to chase up on scans. It's hard, but sometimes we need to be pushy.
Good luck.
