A little bit of my journey

It's funny how trauma makes you miss the things of your childhood. The familiar smells, food, in your case the language, but especially the people you grew up trusting and loving. I'm so glad you have plans to visit them soon, it will give you strength knowing you have that to look forward to after treatment. Having a good partner and his family will go a long way to comforting you, too. I hope all goes well with your treatment questions posted above, did you get the info you needed?

Hello! Thanks so much. you are right, this journey far away from home is very hard. I speak with my mum almost everyday and I plan to go to Colombia when I finish chemo. My partner, his family and my friends became my second family here. I hope treatment hasn't been too bad for you.

Thanks so much for all your information. I am eligible for medicare and also I am with Medibank. I have been doing all my treatment as a private patient and I am going to have an appointment with a recommended private plastic surgeon to check options and fees. If it is around the prices you mentioned, I think I could do it, but what the amounts that have been mentioned elsewhere have been outrageous. your information helps me a lot. Based on what I have read and also what I prefer, I think my best option are implants. I also want to have my other breast remove.

My reconstruction will be at least 6 months after chemo; around January 2017. When you chose to go private, it means private surgeon in private hospital, or private surgeon, operating in public hospital?

Thanks again ! very clear info.

Welcome, Maribel, I'm glad you found us. I'm sorry I don't have any answers to your questions, though it looks like Georgina had some good feedback for you.

I'm writing mainly because I noticed you're from overseas. I am too, from the US, I now have dual citizenship. I don't have any family here either, though I have a lovely supportive partner and good friends. Just wanted to comment that going through this has made me miss my family even more than before. I'm sure you're finding it much the same. It's hard being far from your loved ones through a stressful time. I spent an hour today talking to my brother, it really did help. I hope you get chances to call home often.

I forgot to add that there was also the actual cost of staying in the hospital, but that was totally covered by my private health fund, of course.

Are you eligible for Medicare?  If so, it will be free in the public system, but you will probably have to wait many months for reconstruction treatment, and will have no choice in your surgeon.  An actual cancer removal operation is dealt with much faster, of course.

Do you have private health insurance?  I have top cover with BUPA and went private, as I wanted immediate treatment, and went to a private hospital of my choice with an excellent breast surgeon recommended by a friend.  I had an excellent plastic surgeon whom the breast surgeon recommended.  He took over the second half of the operation once she ha removed the cancerous breast.  He carried out the immediate reconstruction of that breast and the reduction of the other one.

I had a single mastectomy, an immediate reconstruction with a silicon implant, and a reduction of my F-G sized remaining breast down to a C to match the implant.  The operation took five and a half hours in total.

My breast surgeon only charged the scheduled fee which was covered by Medicare. My plastic surgeon charged me $5000 for the combined operation (both breasts being worked on), and I got back about $2000 from Medicare and BUPA combined.  I don't know what it would cost to have just one breast reconstructed.  I was also out of pocket about $400 for the anaesthetist.

The benefit of going private is that you can have the work done as soon as your surgeon (whom you get to choose) can fit you in.  You are not waiting at the end of a long list (very, very long in some cases) to get the call that they will assess you for breast reconstruction.  I also had a private room the whole time which was wonderful.

The down side of going private is that paradoxically, you can be hit with a lot of additional costs.

i went private and am very glad that I did.  Both of my chosen surgeons are excellent, and when I developed infections (not theirs or the hospital's fault), I was admitted immediately back into hospital for as long as was needed, which was twelve days, luckily in a private room.  Given the choice again, I would still go private.