Forum Discussion
I'm not impressed!
TL;DR - If you are a patient at public hospital in Brisbane, check your mammogram & ultrasound appointments. They may no longer be there.
I had my second year mammogram and ultrasound today. It sounds so simple!
I was diagnosed in late February 2018 by (private breast clinic) and referred immediately by my GP to a public hospital as they have a great reputation for dealing with breast cancer. And at the time, yes, they were fantastic. I was seen within about 2 weeks (on a Monday) and a week later I was admitted and have my lumpectomy on the next Monday. Wonderful! Public system at its finest! Nasty tumour ripped out, sentinel node biopsied. All good.
I was assigned a breast care nurse (2 actually who job shared) and had follow ups with the surgeon and visited the Breast and Endocrine Clinic as required. Fantastic! Delays to appointment times but meh, it is what it is. No complaints.
In March 2019 I had my first annual check up. Queried the technician about getting a 3D mammogram. Apparently the machine has the capability of doing this but no one was prepared to pay for the licence to activate it and turn it on. Had an ultrasound - technician noted a couple of cysts but nothing concerning.
Had the follow up appointment for test results at the BE Clinic. Saw a random doctor who claimed to be some kind of breast specialist. I was also told I'd never see my surgeon again. She said the report was all clear. Yay! Great news! However, when I specifically asked about cysts, she said oh no, there aren't any. Hmmm suspicions raised. I asked about breast density. She couldn't give me a definitive answer. I asked what stage was my cancer (knowing it was Grade 3 but not stage). Oh, the response was, we don't use stages any more. Uh really???
Totally forgot at the time to ask for a copy of the report. When I followed up about a week later, breast care nurses said, not our problem. Email these people. So I dutifully emailed my request and heard nothing. And still heard nothing. Followed up 2 weeks later to be told they had never received the original request. <cough bulls*t> Eventually got the report and it was a drawing with some scribbles on it. Not exactly a professional document.
So 2 days ago, I was mentally prepping for my exam this year and received a phone call from Qld XRay at 5 pm the day before my exam saying they are going to schedule my annual appointment. WTF? Apparently the public hospital have outsourced their mammograms and ultrasounds to Qld XRay and did this in November 2019 and obviously didn't tell anyone.
Qld XRay also thought my appointment was 4 April and not 4 March. I told her, no no no, it's definitely 4 March and I'm holding the appointment letter in my hands right now. Of course, no availability on 4 March so I was rescheduled to 5 March. Not too bad, just one day delay. I can cope. But how furious I would have been if I'd turned up at the public hospital to find out it had been cancelled with no notice. Thank goodness I did get the phone call.
So today I rock up to Qld XRay and I am very impressed that the first thing they do is give me a 3D mammogram. No mucking around with old 2D stuff. Excellent!! Ultrasound very thorough and I'm totally on board with the lovely staff. And the best thing is you have access to a Qld XRay online portal and can see your images within a few hours! No report thought until you've seen a doctor, then it becomes available.
Anyway, they contacted the public hospital to get copies of last year's scans and results and hospital promptly tells them that they have no record of me. That there are no scans or results in their system. Are you #(*&ing kidding me? This after receiving a text message today reminding me of my follow up appointment at the hospital for next Monday.
So Qld XRay has had to send off requests on my behalf to private breast Clinic and Breast Screen Qld (where I had a couple of scans done about 6-7 years ago) to try and source comparison scans. All of which is going to delay my report getting to my various doctors.
So the public hospital - not good enough!!! Not happy at all. I don't know what's happened there over the last 1-2 years but something's not right internally.
I shall be very interested to see what happens at my appointment at the BE Clinic next Monday.
Sorry for this long and ranting post but I just had to vent. We rely on this stuff to go smoothly.
I had my second year mammogram and ultrasound today. It sounds so simple!
I was diagnosed in late February 2018 by (private breast clinic) and referred immediately by my GP to a public hospital as they have a great reputation for dealing with breast cancer. And at the time, yes, they were fantastic. I was seen within about 2 weeks (on a Monday) and a week later I was admitted and have my lumpectomy on the next Monday. Wonderful! Public system at its finest! Nasty tumour ripped out, sentinel node biopsied. All good.
I was assigned a breast care nurse (2 actually who job shared) and had follow ups with the surgeon and visited the Breast and Endocrine Clinic as required. Fantastic! Delays to appointment times but meh, it is what it is. No complaints.
In March 2019 I had my first annual check up. Queried the technician about getting a 3D mammogram. Apparently the machine has the capability of doing this but no one was prepared to pay for the licence to activate it and turn it on. Had an ultrasound - technician noted a couple of cysts but nothing concerning.
Had the follow up appointment for test results at the BE Clinic. Saw a random doctor who claimed to be some kind of breast specialist. I was also told I'd never see my surgeon again. She said the report was all clear. Yay! Great news! However, when I specifically asked about cysts, she said oh no, there aren't any. Hmmm suspicions raised. I asked about breast density. She couldn't give me a definitive answer. I asked what stage was my cancer (knowing it was Grade 3 but not stage). Oh, the response was, we don't use stages any more. Uh really???
Totally forgot at the time to ask for a copy of the report. When I followed up about a week later, breast care nurses said, not our problem. Email these people. So I dutifully emailed my request and heard nothing. And still heard nothing. Followed up 2 weeks later to be told they had never received the original request. <cough bulls*t> Eventually got the report and it was a drawing with some scribbles on it. Not exactly a professional document.
So 2 days ago, I was mentally prepping for my exam this year and received a phone call from Qld XRay at 5 pm the day before my exam saying they are going to schedule my annual appointment. WTF? Apparently the public hospital have outsourced their mammograms and ultrasounds to Qld XRay and did this in November 2019 and obviously didn't tell anyone.
Qld XRay also thought my appointment was 4 April and not 4 March. I told her, no no no, it's definitely 4 March and I'm holding the appointment letter in my hands right now. Of course, no availability on 4 March so I was rescheduled to 5 March. Not too bad, just one day delay. I can cope. But how furious I would have been if I'd turned up at the public hospital to find out it had been cancelled with no notice. Thank goodness I did get the phone call.
So today I rock up to Qld XRay and I am very impressed that the first thing they do is give me a 3D mammogram. No mucking around with old 2D stuff. Excellent!! Ultrasound very thorough and I'm totally on board with the lovely staff. And the best thing is you have access to a Qld XRay online portal and can see your images within a few hours! No report thought until you've seen a doctor, then it becomes available.
Anyway, they contacted the public hospital to get copies of last year's scans and results and hospital promptly tells them that they have no record of me. That there are no scans or results in their system. Are you #(*&ing kidding me? This after receiving a text message today reminding me of my follow up appointment at the hospital for next Monday.
So Qld XRay has had to send off requests on my behalf to private breast Clinic and Breast Screen Qld (where I had a couple of scans done about 6-7 years ago) to try and source comparison scans. All of which is going to delay my report getting to my various doctors.
So the public hospital - not good enough!!! Not happy at all. I don't know what's happened there over the last 1-2 years but something's not right internally.
I shall be very interested to see what happens at my appointment at the BE Clinic next Monday.
Sorry for this long and ranting post but I just had to vent. We rely on this stuff to go smoothly.
23 Replies
- I am also PA patient and have everything brilliant but do wonder why we can not got back to Breast screen for mammograms instead of hanging around busy hospital radiology department
- Thanks @kezmusc. Even if 3d isn't helpful in every case I still think we should be given all available techology options for our own peace of mind. And who knows? It just may be the thing that at least prompts further investigation.
- P.S I queried BCN about having 3d mammo after my long running saga of standard mammos not picking things up. She kind of wrinkled her nose up and said "Don't think it will help in your case" It's still not as good as MRI technology. Hmmm makes you wonder huh?
- @KarynJ
It's one of my favourite sayings :) Congrats on the two years! xoxoxo - Hi @kezmusc . I was desperate to use your "ass should be grass" expression. :)
I had my follow up appointment this afternoon at the Clinic. Turns out they do still have my images from last year. The reason why they couldn't be sent to X-Ray? Oh...computers...you know....teething problems....file sizes.
So from what I can tell it was just put in the "too hard" basket.
The Dr today advised that someone from the hospital radiology department looked at last year's scans and the new images and doesn't think there is anything to worry about. Yay! 2 years all clear!!
However, there will be a follow up report pending comparison of old and new images by X-Ray. The Dr will phone me if there is anything of concern.
So until I hear otherwise, happy days!! - Hi @mira. I'm not sure how "3D" the 3D is. The report has some very technical jargon I don't really understand. But the machine had 3D written on the side and while I was being squished, part of the machine moved in an arc over the top of the breast. So in the images, you can scroll through and see about 30 different slides as the machine took the pictures.
The report says:
"Bilateral MLO and CC tomosynthesis imaging with 2D C-view reconstructed images. The 3D volumetric breast density reading is xx% in the right breast in keeping with and BIRADS B."
Then later in the report it states:
"Volpara Breast Density Ranges
<xx% fatty, BIRADS A
xx% - xx% scattered fibroglandular, BIRADS B
xx% - xx% heterogeneously dense, BIRADS C
>xx% extremely dense, BIRADS D
So whether it's a true 3D imaging process, I'm not sure. It may be just measuring volume and size and not taking the detailed x-rays.
I didn't have to pay for any of it. It was all bulk billed. - A lot of public hospitals outsource their scanning. Some of them just don't have all the equipment. It's all electronic transfer these days so really there shouldn't be many delays . At my last apt with the surgeon she just pulled up all the images the radiology place had done straight away for me to see. No sure which hospital you are talking about but if they've lost your surgery report and original pathology someone's ass should be grass.
I guess there's one good thing about a lot of hospitals being digitally connected to each other these days, the records are there when you need them. can't say too much either but....that's of course unless the wi fi is out, the batteries are flat in the computers, multiple other technical glitches, hacking, human error, etc etc etc :# - @KarynJ I'm not sure whats happened. Maybe all the bushfires have put them behind schedule. Last year one of my lymph nodes was enlarged and they were all over it. I see random doctors in the breast clinic when I go as well, varying experiences ha! But usually good. I think once the surgery portion is finished the surgeon bows out and focusses on others. I've only dealt with Michelle as a breast care nurse, but she's been awesome.
That's interesting that you mentioned the Qld Xray give you a 3d mammo as an option. Is that covered by medicare or do you have to pay? I turned them down and said I don't mind waiting for the hospital (I'm in my 5th year after a lumpectomy), but if they do something that's more detailed I might rethink that decision. - Geelong Hospital was held to ransom last year with appointments, procedures and operations cancelled as patients computer files had all been stolen. They are still having issues with it. Most of my files had been transferred to another hospital only the week before but it still affected me. We don’t always know what is going on behind the scenes. It would make it easier for us if we did.
- Hi @Mira. Up until this week I really have been happy with pretty much everything. The op, the rads, most of the staff. It's generally gone well. So I'm just wondering what kind of internal glitch has happened to cause this confusion.
