How long did it take to schedule your surgery?

I was able to schedule more or less immediately. If I were getting that kind of customer service I would think long and hard about using that practice.

I don't remember the exact time frame, but it did take a bit of time to coordinate the breast surgeon and plastic surgeon's schedule. I was dx'ed in early July, met with both surgeons toward the end of July and by early August knew my early September surgery date. If I had chosen a different ps, it might have happened sooner, but my ps, who only did reconstructive surgery, was quite sought after. I felt so completely confident and comfortable with him, that it was worth the wait. However, if you're feeling anxious about a date, don't hesitate to call. 

Caryn

Got last biopsy results on September 28, 2011; surgery (BMX & Recon) scheduled for October 31st. Not my first choice - I didn't want to wake up to a bunch of nurses in witch and clown costumes.

Then that got cancelled and rescheduled for November 8th, but I got really sick and had to postpone.

Finally had my surgery on December 5th, 2011.

I was worried about the long wait, but my Radiologist told me the cancer had probably been in my body for 8 - 10 years. (According to Dr. Susan Love)

The hospital had to find a date that accommodated 1) the Breast Surgeon's schedule; 2) the Plastic Surgeon's schedule; and 3) the specific OR availability for the time frame they needed for my procedures.

Since you are having a PBMX, you are not generally going to be as high of a priority as those who are needing MX as part of their treatment. I am in Canada so things differ a bit, but I also had a PBMX with immediate reconstruction. 

My BS and PS not only needed to co-ordinate their schedules with each other (which can be difficult as they not only have surgeries, but on-call times, conferences, and so on), but they also needed to arrange to find an open OR time (they wanted, as I recall, 5 hours of time). I consulted with two different BSs and PSs. The first ones took over a month to get me a date (and that date was something like 4-5 months ahead?). The other ones gave me a date within a few days after my consult with the PS, but in that case I had also waited almost 3 months to see the PS after the referral from the BS, and the BS was already on top of it and had his assistant look at dates ahead of time. Both he and the PS wanted to get me in as soon as they could because I had already done a lot of waiting! In that case, the surgery was scheduled for about 2 1/2 months from the date it was booked, which ended up being earlier than the date with the other surgeons. But, not only were these different surgeons, it was also a different hospital so availability of OR would have been different too.

cinvee,

Thanks for the clarification. I know that you are ready and want to get going, but since yours is a prophylactic surgery, they may have given priority to those with active bc. Be patient (not easy, I know) and it will happen. 

I don't think it is helpful to compare surgery wait times for someone with cancer to someone without. It would be a totally different scheduling criteria.

My 2 cents. Wait til next year. Tell them you can't do it in December.  It can costs you lots more money, it can mess up your holidays. They started my chemo on a certain day in November,  so it wouldn't mess up my holidays ( their idea). I couldn't reach my MD Anderson doctors a week before Christmas,  when I started having problems, and had to go to the ER on 12/23, locally, cause I was dying. Spent Christmas in the local hospital,  Never heard from my MD ANDERSON Dr. Until after Christmas. It was the last Christmas my mom was alive. I was in isolation.  It was awful.

The scheduling for my tests for the MRI and Genetics testing took awhile. Getting the surgery scheduled was quick. I met with my plastic surgeon the 2nd to the last week of July, and they had already coordinated my surgery for 1 week later. Everything was slow, but then that was quick.