Storm in a teacup

Levels of anxiety had significantly risen overnight after being told “not to worry”. Yet another night of no sleep.  After a significant wait at clinic this morning I was ushered into the surgeon’s room, along with 2 nurses and a medical student. The last time I had this crowd in a consulting room was when I was given the cancer diagnosis so it did nothing to steady the nerves.

However, a few minutes later, the surgeon told me that she thought there was nothing to worry about and the Breast Nurses (both of whom had had the honour of performing previous drains) repeated their contact details and told me to get in touch if anything was bothering me. The fact that the Lazarus boob has never bothered me (except when I thought it was cancer) is almost marginal to proceedings.

So…some time out on needles in breast (or what was a breast). I suspect not long but at least no imminent operation which has to be good news. That said, the surgeon does want to see me again in a month…whoo-hoo yet another clinic to fit in.

The rest of my time seems taken over with hospital administration which has become a huge part of life.  Letter in post yesterday cancelled my consultant appointment on 9 September. Nobody at hospital knew why and consultant is away so it wasn’t her decision. Of course it was very stretched but kind staff (covering holidays) who had to unravel what was going on and trying to put me back into an appointment slot was nigh on impossible. It has taken 24 hours to come up with an answer which involves “squeezing me in” – inevitably at a different time.  I have  another appointment at the same hospital that day which was arranged to fit round this primary appointment so now I need to change that and await a callback.  I am already steeling myself that this will have to be on another day and thus mean I will have 3 different days of hospital visits that week. Depending upon the outcome of 1st appointment I have yet another appointment in a different clinic for the following week which phew! now doesn’t need re-arranging.  The fact that I am trying to get to work that week (and every week) does not even feature – cancer remains top priority and the rest of life is seen as secondary!