Canada IDC and me ( or what's left of my mental health)

hi gladis, welcome but sorry you find yourself here. I'm near Vancouver so I'm guessing we're distant neighbors.

So what you need to know is that a prophylactic mastectomy doesnt lower the risk of a metastatic recurrence. A lumpectomy is a much easier day surgery with a substantially faster recovery and lower risk of complications so if it's being offered, you may want to take that into consideration. You should know too that if you have a mastectomy and during it they find cancerous tissue in your lymph nodes, you'd need radiation anyway.

Chemo shouldn't be off the table unless you have comorbidities that exclude it. Normally you'd have something called the Oncotype test done in your tumor sample to determine the benefit of chemo.

Surgeons have differing backlogs - depending on what surgeon you select, you might be able to get your surgery sooner.

Radiation can sometimes be done on a shorter, higher dose schedule & the cancer agency can also sometimes help with temporary accommodations near the treatment center.

Hang in there, it get easier once the treatment plan is decided on.

After the surgery you'll be referred to the BC Cancer Agency & meet with an oncologist and then they will decide about ordering the Oncotype test. If they order it, the sample has to go to the US for testing & that adds its own delay so be prepared for that. There's a lot of hurry up and wait ... but it's ok, in most cases breast cancer is urgent but it's not an emergency. There's time to get all the info & data & make evidence based decisions.

You can change surgeons anytime (well, until you're in the OR lol) but you'd need an new visit & then scheduling which would probably put you back in the 3+ weeks which would put you pretty close to where you are now. But for future reference - like if you need a hip done or a gallbladder or whatever - you can check all surgical wait times in BC, call the surgeon's office directly to confirm if they have surgical space avail (they need OR space in whatever facility they work out of) and then ask your GP to refer to them. https://swt.hlth.gov.bc.ca/swt/

ttfn

Hi, Gladis: welcome to the club for which no one wants to be a member but we will all be team players and support each other. This place was my lifeboat when I fell overboard. I hope the site gets back to its original user friendly status.

I remember some BCO member(s) living on the Sunshine Coast. If you go to British Columbians (can't remember the whole thread name) you might find that person. Cancer is isolating enough without being far away from most everything. It is okay to be a lurker. I sill do that when I decide not to post anything for myself. It goes against my grain but I have discovered you really have to be the proverbial squeaky wheel and be an advocate for yourself.