just diagnosed in ON

I had immediate reconstruction done at PMH.  I was thrilled with both my surgeon and my PS but unfortunately my PS isn't there anymore.  But I know that some of the women here have gone to the new PS who's replaced her so hopefully someone will come by who can give you more information.

Depending on the type of reconstruction you want done, I know that immediate reconstruction is available at a number of other hospitals in the Toronto area.  Implant reconstruction is easier; fewer PSs do DIEPs, TRAMs and GAPs.  Before I changed surgeons and moved to PMH, I was considering immediate reconstruction at Trillium in Mississauga.  I'm pretty sure that immediate reconstruction is also available at Sunnybrook.

Is there is a reason why you are thinking about a private clinic? 

lizard,

I had two surgeries.  The first was a joint surgery with my breast surgeon and the PS.  That's when I had the mastectomy and the expander was put in.  The second was just with the PS; that was when I had the expander replaced with the implant plus I had an implant added into my 'good' breast for symmetry.

For the 2nd surgery, my PS insisted on waiting at least 2 months after the expander was filled before doing the surgery.  This is to let the the muscle get used to it's new stretched position.  With scheduling, my surgery ended up being 3 months after my last fill so I guess you could say that I waited one extra month. 

If you have immediate reconstruction at PMH, you usually can get scheduled in within a reasonable period of time.  This is because you are having your breast cancer surgery at the same time as your reconstruction so it's considered an urgent surgery and it's prioritized - bumped to the top of the list.  Similarly, once you have your reconstruction underway, while the next surgeries are not quite as urgent, you aren't going to left waiting for months and months - because you are in process, you are still considered to be fairly high priority.  The long long delays that you hear about with reconstruction tend to be when someone is not having immediate reconstruction.  In this case, the surgery is not considered urgent because the breast cancer has already been operated on.  So whereas I was able to get in to see the PS at PMH (actually she worked out of TGH but operated at both PMH and TGH) within 1 week of requesting the appointment, I know that at around that time, if someone wanted to see this same PS about reconstruction but it was not immediate reconstruction, the wait time for an appointment was 9 months to 1 year.  That's the thing about the Canadian system.  There can be long waits, but that's in part because urgent surgeries are continually being bumped to the top of the list.  So it's the elective and non-urgent surgeries that have to wait.  Wait times for urgent surgery usually are not a whole lot different than they are in the U.S..

I, too, am not getting reconstructed or prophylactics. I was very large breasted and am enjoying my flatness! It looks like I have lost a fair bit of weight (I guess I have!) and clothes just look so much neater on me. I am not flaunting my flatness, in fact, gave away a half bag of gorgeous sweaters and tops that flaunted my cleavage! The tops were now too low and had too much sagging fabric to look right. I have opted for lighter tops and am very happy with my decision so far.

If only this last damn drain could come out and I could go back to work!