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"Post care after 2 separate treatments for Triple Negative Breast Cancer"

About: Western General Hospital / General Surgery Western General Hospital / Radiotherapy

(as the patient),

I was first diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer in March 2013 - I had 2 lumpectomies, 6 Chemotherapy sessions and radiation treatment.  I was treated very well by all concerned, though I did feel that when it was all done, that was it, I felt a little bit like "what do I do now?".  However, I just got on with it - pared down my work and got on with trying to enjoy life.  I never felt great though and I had all my yearly checks - one in May 2015.  By August I was having a lot of breast pain in the other breast this time.  My doctor referred me to the Breast Clinic for investigation, however, I was only give a manual check and a lot of reassurance from the Nurse who saw me - it may be muscular, highly unlikely to be anything to worry about etc, etc.  I went away feeling quite optimistic and vowed to ignore it, by the end of December the pain was so bad that I remember lying in bed (in an unusual way for me) and I found a large lump straight away.  This was  mid December, I went to my doctor and got a referral to the Breast Clinic - my appointment was for the beginning of January, 2016 and after a bit of difficulty, the lump was found and I was diagnosed that day - all the tests were done and I spent the next year going through all the treatments (though this time the chemo was horrendous).  I also took Cannabis Oil every day (I credit it with a lot of my recovery). At the end, I remembered that, like the last time, I was on my own  and I made an appointment with a herbalist who recommended a fantastic vitamin replacement and iron - made me feel like things were going to be fine and it has been.  

Since then I have had 2 yearly checkups and both times I have waited for 10 weeks for the results and have had to phone up both times to find out if everything was ok.

I know that they are busy there, but I really feel that they could take more care - especially as they have to know that I would worry about these checks each year!

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Responses

Response from Jeannette Morrison, Head of Patient Experience, NHS Lothian 6 years ago
Jeannette Morrison
Head of Patient Experience,
NHS Lothian
Submitted on 26/03/2018 at 16:56
Published on Care Opinion at 19:21


Dear catco

Thank you very much for sharing your feedback with us and l am so sorry to read what has been happening to you.

It does not sound as though things have gone as smoothly as they should have and I was especially sorry to hear about the delays that you have experienced in getting your results from your yearly checks, this must have been a very anxious time for you.

The clinical team are aware of your feedback and have asked me to get in touch to ask if you would contact us to see if we can help, our details are:

Email: feedback@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk

Post: 2 - 4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG

I hope that we can help.

Kind regards

Jeannette

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