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The time from diagnosis to surgery for me has been very long due to several factors in my large medical group. Initial confirmation of HR, PR+, HER2 - from biopsy on 6/2 until MRI changing plan from lumpectomy to mastectomy on 7/29 has been 8+ weeks. Oncologists started me with letrozole end of June due to the delay. Vacations, loss of surgeons, low staff, covid, few surgical openings at any one of the hospitals has been frustrating. While the doctors say my disease is a very slow progression, I wonder if others have experienced time to treat the same as mine. Surgery this week, but what still lies ahead?
Replies to "The time from diagnosis to surgery for me has been very long due to several factors..."
I am having the same issues as nlb122 at Mayo in Phoenix.. I am having to wait almost 4 months to have surgery. I have same numbers as you from my biopsy. My Oncologist put me on letrozole. The doctors say not to worry it's slow growing. From the MRI my nodes look good but Its agony waiting. I'm having a mastectomy on one side with reconstruction and a new implant on the other side.
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I was lucky in that my former PCP's practice was still a mess last year, fewer doctors and near-zero support staff, so I called a major medical facility (Cleveland Clinic) and had a new PCP within a day. As bad luck would have it, a routine mammogram 10 days later found a small tumor. I had biopsies and surgery within 2 weeks.
Had I waited for some future appointment with my former PCP, and then weeks to have mammo and ultrasound, at least another week[s] for a biopsy...then referrals to surgeon's and oncologists, I once calculated that the surgery would have taken at least three more months to get done. I never again want medical care parceled out over multiple independent medical practices. At places like Mayo and CC, once one is a patient, i.e., in the system, I feel that there's an institutional commitment to one's care that never would have occurred to me until I was in real trouble.