Advice on timescales from diagnosis to treatment

Hello everyone. I recently posted as a bag of nerves about being called back after a biopsy, and as I had suspected the doctor confirmed that I had cancer, at stage 1B1. At that time he told me that I had red stickers on my folder, and that he wanted to organise scans as soon as possible, and that as long as the scans confirmed the diagnosis I would be looking at a hysterectomy in mid to late September.
Up to that point things had moved dizzyingly fast, but since then they seemed to have slowed right down. It was 10 days before the CT scan, and I had the MRI the day after, then I had another agonising 10 day wait before they phoned to tell me that thankfully it was good news and the staging has remained the same and the cancer hasn’t spread. The MacMillan Nurse confirmed that I will be having a hysterectomy and said I would get a phone call for an appointment to discuss treatment as soon as possible. Another week went by, then I got a letter asking me to see the consultant on 6th October, which at that time was nearly three weeks away.
I’m just worried that things have suddenly lost the amazing momentum they had at the beginning, and wondered if this timescale is about normal? I have a dear friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of weeks before me, and she’s already had her operation last week. I had amazing care from the first consultant I saw for the biopsy, but the length of time since my diagnosis is making me so stressed and anxious, and I feel as if I put my life on hold too soon. After what the original doctor told me I thought I’d be in the middle of treatment by now and stopped my tutoring work as it involved going into people’s houses, which I’ve been advised not to do. The longer this goes on the more anxious I get and I’ve got too much time to dwell on it! I can’t see that I’ll be having the operation before the end of October at this rate, or possibly even later than that. Does anyone have any advice - I wondered about contacting the MacMillan Nurse again but it could be this is a completely normal time frame. Thanks in advance for any advice or experiences.

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Hello
First of all I am so sorry you find yourself in this situation! Thankfully the staging of your cancer shows its fully curable!

Looking back at my experience I remember that the worst possible thing was the wait! And I am a very impatient person so this didn’t help.

I was diagnosed on 26th June and had my radical hysterectomy on 5th August. I’m based in Northern Ireland.

I hope you won’t be waiting long for the operation! Fingers crossed and take care!

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Hi plumm3

My op was done 13 days after I was informed of my confirmed diagnosis. There was some urgency because my tumour was stage 1B2 (new Figo) and
measured 3.8cm so was at the upper end of being operable.

It’s very understandable that your anxiety is increasing as time goes on and since you were initially told you would be getting a hysterectomy by late September I would give your Macmillan nurse a call to find out what the situation is.

Best wishes

x

It seems the most common cause of anxiety with us all on here is the wait for either diagnosis and or surgery/treatment. I’m waiting for treatment myself and it’s really frustrating. I think every area depends on how busy they are and it seems to fdiffer slightly. I’m in Northern Ireland also.
Hopefully it wont be too much longer for either of us.