How long is the wait?

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SkiChick86
SkiChick86 Member Posts: 55
edited January 2017 in Diagnosed and Waiting for Test Results

Hi ladies,

I'm wondering if anyone here can shed some light on wait times for various processes involved in diagnoses. I apologize if this has been covered. I also realize this might be a really individual but any insight would be helpful. I was tentatively diagnosed on 1/4 with an official diagnosis on the 6th. My biopsy was the 5th but the pathology report wasn't complete as of Friday afternoon. I'm wondering how long the wait might be for the following:

- Getting HR status from the pathology report once the biopsy has been done

- Starting chemotherapy once I've met with an oncologist (if chemo comes before surgery, which I believe will be the case for me)

- Doing surgery (if surgery comes before chemo)

Again, this might be highly varieable, but any insight would be appreciated. The waiting truly is the worst part.

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  • Freya244117
    Freya244117 Member Posts: 603
    edited January 2017

    Hi skichick, I hope someone can give you a better idea than I can. I'm Australian, and for me it was all very quick. From when I first found the lump to mx was 8 days. I started chemo 6 weeks later. HR status came after mx.

    This was my time line:

    Late sat night - found lump

    Appointment with GP Sun morn

    Mammogram, ultrasound and FNA Mon morn - told immediately they believed it was cancer.

    Appointment with BS Tues morn, core biopsy immediately after

    CT scan Wed - staging

    Bone scan Thurs - staging

    Appointment with BS Fri for results

    Surgery Mon.

    Waiting is the worst time, and although it felt like a whirlwind at the time, I am grateful it all happened so quickly. It gets so much easier once you have a plan in place. Best wishes.

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  • MTwoman
    MTwoman Member Posts: 2,704
    edited January 2017

    Hi SkiChick, I'm not sure how helpful my answers are going to be.

    I think how long you wait for your report really depends on the lab doing your pathology. Specialty labs usually take longer as they have samples coming in from all over.

    As for either chemo or surgery, I'm sure that will depend on what your pathology shows. You will need to get an appointment and meet with either an MO or a BS (and sometimes a PS) before you would schedule the next step. There could also be other images ordered. Or other diagnostics recommended.

    I actually got a second opinion on my pathology, which completely changed the direction of my treatment. Although I had to halt the progression of my care (the recommendation came in after I had already met with my RO and set a date to get my 'dot' tattoos), and wait for it; I am ever so glad I did. Getting the second opinion resulted in me waiting for an MRI appointment. The MRI found more areas of concern, which led to more waiting for another appointment and then more biopsies, which led to more waiting for another pathology report and finding more DCIS. If I had not gotten the MRI/biopies done, I would have moved straight into radiation without having removed all of the DCIS. In that scenario, there is a strong likelihood that I would have had a local recurrence. The odds on a local recurrence of DCIS being invasive vs. more DCIS are about 50/50.

    So that is a long-winded way of saying I understand how difficult waiting can be. And getting all of the information before you make your decisions is imperative. Radiation, for example, can only ever be done on an area once. If I had gone into radiation instead of continuing to do diagnostics (which was the plan), I would not have been able to use that intervention if I had gotten a recurrence. I don't think anyone can predict how long each of the stages will take for you as we are as individual in our treatments as we are in and our diagnoses details.

    Sorry I couldn't give you more concrete answers and Good luck!

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  • SkiChick86
    SkiChick86 Member Posts: 55
    edited January 2017

    Thank you MTwoman. I realize it is a hard question to answer, I am just going crazy not knowing what is happening inside my body or with a treatment plan. After posting this I did get a call from the health navigator and she actually had my pathology report in full. So if anyone else is looking at this and wondering, for me it took about 48 hours to get the full pathology report, but no one called me with that info, I just happened to talk to someone who had it in front of them.

    Thanks for sharing your experience!

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