What better way to get yourself in the mood for Christmas than a festive trip to the RUH to discuss nipple reconstruction options!
Something, some of my avid followers will know from my last blog that has been playing on my mind for some time. I went ahead and had some prosthetic nipples made after my last op, and im not going to lie, they look incredible! to be honest, I never bother to wear them but they are sitting in my draw ready to go, should I need to whip them out for a special occasion.
As I drove to the RUH for my appointment, it dawned on me that I was going back to meet with Nicky, the lady who told me who had cancer as well as removed it. This was the woman who had saved my life. I’ve not thought of it like that before and I began to get quite emotional.
I checked in to the breast care unit and sat in, what must have been some kind of specialist medical chair because my feet didn’t even touch the floor and were swinging around like a child on a seat far too big for them. I was only sat for about ten minutes before someone called my name “Mrs Amy Spencer”. It was Nicky. She had tears in her eyes. I was quite taken aback by it and for a minute didn’t even recognise her. “I hope you don’t mind but I have a student with me?” I didn’t mind at all. I’m past the stage of caring who sees my boobs and scars now.
I followed Nicky in to one of the consultation rooms where a young student was sat in the corner in silence “This is her” Nicky said excitedly to her as she pointed me to a seat. They both turned and smiled at me followed by a bit of an awkward pause. I was flattered at her comment and my mind started to wonder what they must have talked about prior to my arrival. She must have discussed me previously to have introduced me like that.
We chatted for about 10 minutes about the nipple reconstruction options with the conclusion from Nicky “If I do it, it won’t be very good so you are best off going back to Southmead. They make nipples all the time and are better” so I have been referred back to them.
Just as I was about to leave Nicky said “I have something I’ve wanted to tell you” and started to tear up again. OH SHIT! Everything started to run through my mind. Did they cut off the wrong boob? Has it come back? Did they leave some kind of medical instrument in me?
I sat and listened to what she said “I don’t know if you recall but when we first told you you had cancer you had to wait for three weeks for imaging (This is when they do the MRIs/CT scans etc to determine the grade and stage of the cancer and begin to form a treatment plan) This was not acceptable to me and I have been fighting ever since to make sure that what happened to you will never happen to any other woman in the unit again” She was in tears, I was in tears. “I don’t want there to have to ever be another case of Amy Spencer ever again”
Wow. This was incredible. It was a LOT to take in and totally took me by surprise. It was a lot to process. I joked that perhaps that was worthy of my having a commemorative plaque at the hospital and we laughed (I was being serious!)
I left the hospital trying to process what I had just been told. When I got home I emailed Nicky just to clarify and what follows is her email to me….
Dear Amy,
Sorry for being emotional when I saw you today and maybe I should not have said what I said.
When we first met, I was aware that you had waited 3 weeks for your breast imaging to see if you had breast cancer. This is because your breast cancer was not obvious when you were examined and as such you waited for imaging.
Although this would not have changed your prognosis or survival chances, the thought that you had waited 3 weeks to know if you had breast cancer or not, to me is not acceptable. You were not the only person that this happened to, however you were the one person that pushed me into action to make a change.
alongside this, the government also thought that they want to prioritise times for patients to know if they have breast cancer or not and developed a 28 day target from referral to the patient having a definite diagnosis.
As a result of what happened to you, and In order for us to be able to speed up the process, the team embarked on a process to train up more people to read mammograms and ultrasound so that almost everyone that is seen in the breast unit will get their imaging on the day. Even if we think that they have a benign diagnosis. Because of you and your case, no one will wait three weeks from being seen in the clinic to having their breast imaging ever again.
It has taken all of this time from your diagnosis, almost 5 years ago, to now to get to a point where we can offer this service. Apologies that we could not offer this to you, but your 3 week wait has driven us to make these changes so now our patients don’t wait for imaging.
It’s a massive but welcome change.
Best wishes
Nicky
I was, and still am, completely and utterly blown away.
I am so moved by what they have gone on to achieve and that it was my journey that inspired them to make this “massive, but welcome change”. Everything happens for a reason. And if it took me getting cancer to force a change in the ways things are done, then it was worth all I went through. And to know that this will make such a huge difference to so many women’s lives makes me happy beyond words.
Thank goodness I considered a nipple or I’d have never of known about this amazing achievement!
Still think I should get a plaque….