Breast Surgeon in Melbourne

lyao

Hi, everyone:

I have just been diagnosed Mucinous Carcinoma two weeks ago, looking for a better Breast Surgeon in Melbourne, could someone give me some recommendation based on your experience, I am living in North west area of Melbourne? Is anyone the patient of Prof. Bruce Mann or Dr Jane Obrien or Dr David Speakman?

Thank you.

Afraser

@lyao

My Breast Surgeon is Mr Su Wen Loh at the Melbourne Breast Unit, East Melbourne. I still see him annually as he does my mammograms, funny lump checks (all harmless to date!) and consider him my expert friend. Nearly 10 years and NED. 

Best wishes. 

lyao

Thank you for your information,  Afraser 

Keeping_positive1

Mr Anthony Hyett is my breast surgeon, I believe he also goes North West.

Lisa1407

@lyao My surgeon was David Speakman. He is such a gorgeous man and a fine doctor too. You can be a private patient at Peter Mac and specify to see David. I had my mastectomy early one morning at Peter Mac and then later that night realised I was haemorrhaging. I had to be transferred to the Royal Melbourne for night time surgery and had to wait quite some time for a theatre to be free. David called me and spoke to me before hand and when I was transferred to the RMH he was there waiting (he could have got a Fellow to do the surgery). He even held my hand whilst they were putting me under. I also know that Bruce is great and Jane has a good reputation too. I think you would be in good hands with anyone of them.
Good luck in you choice. Cheers Lisa

Lisa1407

@lyao I forgot to add that mucinous carcinomas are supposed to be very slow growing so hopefully you have got it early.  xx

lyao

@Lisa1407, thank you for your lovely comment. Sound like your surgeon-Dr Speakman is very good surgeon?
 and which plastic surgeon are you using for your reconstruction? :
  cheers

Lisa1407

@lyao I had a DIEP flap reconstruction and reduction of the remaining breast at Peter Mac too. My surgeon was Natalie Ngan, but she doesn't work at Peter Mac anymore. I think she only does private practice. She is an excellent surgeon and was recommended to me by a nurse at Peter Mac who had seen a lot of the reconstructions. As the second PS (they need two to do the kind of reconstruction I had) I had the head of plastics a Peter Mac Angela Webb. She is excellent and very nice.  Angela looked after my second surgery to tidying things up. My reconstruction is great, but it isn't perfect. However, I decided perfect wasn't necessary when you don't have a long life to live (I have advanced breast cancer) and haven't gone back for a third correction. It does all depend on what sort of surgery you choose to have as to whether there needs to be corrections or not. Good to ask as many people as you can as part of it is about whether you like and trust your surgeon. All of the surgeons I had, were identified by my using my contacts (in health) and finding out who had the best reputation!

lyao

@Lisa1407 Thank you for your detailed explanation. Are you treated as public patient or private patient at Peter Mac? I thought Pater Mac is public hospital which doesn't accept any private patient, if they do are the same cost as treated in private hospital or could be cheaper? And how to organize this ? As it most likely I will have mastectomy on the left breast and needing reconstruction because of the size of cancer area, unfortunately my private insurance would not cover for both surgeries, so I try to find way to reduce the cost in some extent and have most experienced surgeon to operating as I have to self fund those costs.
You are so brave !  Quite often people have been told they don't have a long life to live but  it turns out they live longer than other people without cancer ,  as long as you keep positive, never give up! I believe you will get better and better.  

iserbrown

Here's a link for you to research 

https://www.petermac.org/location/melbourne/accessing-our-services

Lisa1407

Hi @lyao, @iserbrown has sent you the perfect link to explain how being a private patient at Peter Mac works. Most public hospitals do this as it is  a way for them to earn more money out of you admission. But the most important thing is that it doesn't cost you a cent, as they pick up the out-of-pocket expenses, and you still get to choose your doctor. There is one down side though! They do not maintain separate surgery lists for private and public patients. So usually their lists are long (particularly now because what COVID has done to elective surgery lists). You will get your mastectomy in a timely fashion, however reconstruction may take some time perhaps 2 -3 years (of course unless you can get them to do the both at the same time - depends on your cancer type and what type of reconstruction you have). I absolutely love Peter Mac. The staff are so nice and so caring (and so expert). Although, sometimes the waiting for blood tests and the like is a bit too much to bear. They are also good for clinical trials to access new drugs (which you need when you run out of drugs to try) and I am finding it a bit tedious. This is not so much because of Peter Mac but because of the way the pharmaceutical companies run their trial. As I am in the early stages of joining the trial, I am in at the hospital at least three times every two weeks and it doesn't take long to be 'over' it.  Thanks for you kind words too. I am six years since diagnosis and although I am positive am not sure how long I have left. I try to take one thing at a time. Cheers