"Breast cancer"

I was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago in a lump that I found myself. It was not picked up on a mammogram with breast screen WA( in the pink van), it was really on the edge of my under breast. I had a lumpectomy at Albany hospital and radiation at a hospital in Perth.

During that year I had several phone consultations with oncologists in Albany and one face to face in Perth at another hospital.

At the end of last year, I had a face to face appointment with the oncologist in Albany. On arrival I was asked if I’d had a recent mammogram/ ultrasound. I hadn’t. I was lead to believe I would be contacted and appt booked for me beforehand.

An appointment for both was organised immediately.

Recently, I was informed that my previous scans showed a lesion in my breast- about 7 weeks after my scans. I needed a biopsy under ultrasound and mammogram.

When the results came back it indicated breast cancer and it required chemotherapy.

I feel that attention to my health by the Albany hospital has been tardy and quite inefficient. I believe I should have been monitored closely after radiation and informed urgently after the lesion showed up.

I already have had bad experiences with my health at Albany hospital and have usually gone to another hospital in Perth. This just makes me feel angry and annoyed all over again.

I want to use our local services, as of course it’s less disruptive to be around your home when unwell. But my loyalties start to waiver again.

And who knows if my cancer has now spread elsewhere because of what seems to me to be this inefficiency and systematic failure with procedures.