Forum Discussion

AnnaS's avatar
AnnaS
Member
23 hours ago

Post surgery pathology

Hi there,

I had a double mastectomy last week following a cancer diagnosis in April.  

I had sentinel lymph nodes removed as part of the surgery and am assuming the lymph node testing will infom the next steps/stage.

I was disappointed to hear that the pathology on the lymph nodes will take at least 6 weeks due to a massive backlog in the Tasmanian public healthcare system. 

I'm curious to hear how long the wait is for lymph node testing in other states. I'd appreciate hearing how long other women generally have to wait please. 

I'm pretty anxious to know if the cancer has spread beyond my breasts, as well as to find out what the next steps are. 

Thanks for reading, 

Anna

double mastectomy
lymph nodes

1 Reply

  • Moomincorn's avatar
    Moomincorn
    Member
    1 hour ago

    Hi AnnaS​ - the waiting is horrible and I imagine it's more so when you get told that it will take longer than it should due to a backlog.

    I'm in NSW. I had lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy last year. My report was ready 10 days later, but I wasn't booked in to see my surgeon until 22 days after surgery.  We hadn't expected lymph node involvement but the report said I had 3 of 4 lymph nodes involved.

    My surgeon wasn't happy with the level of detail in the report about the lymph node involvement. 15 days later an updated report was ready so the time from surgery to the second report was 37 days.  Then my surgeon and the multidisciplinary team was able to make recommendation for more surgery. 

    I had a second surgery for axillary dissection to remove more lymph nodes. That report took 7 days but again I wasn't booked into see my surgeon until 17 days after surgery.  

    I hope that your results arrive sooner than they've estimated.