"Breast cancer reconstructive surgery"

I was diagnosed with stage 2 grade 3 IDC in 2019, I underwent 3 surgeries in 6 weeks, one of which was a right sided mastectomy, 6 months of chemo, 15 rounds radiation and am now into my 3rd year of hormone blockers. I am a single mum, a student and a cancer survivor. I was put on the preventative/reconstructive surgery waitlist in early 2021 as a category 3 elective surgery patient (after waiting for a year for the appointment) at RPH plastics department for a prophylactic mastectomy and tram flap reconstruction.

Since being put on the waitlist public cat 3 elective surgery was cancelled in WA due to Covid, which I heartbreakingly found out on the news as I was not informed by RPH. I was then contacted in late 2022 to notify me I was at the top of the list and to do the pre-op appts (which I did) and was told it would be done by end of a month earlier this year, after that month rolled by I contacted plastics and was told oh sorry won’t be done before another 3 months, so I was told I was pencilled in for that month. Now as I need to stop hormone blocker treatment 2 weeks prior to surgery, if my math serves me correctly, that month has blown by as well. I have now waited 800 days since my original appointment and still no date in sight nor a phone call to be heard.

I looked up average wait times for cat 3 elective plastic surgery at RPH and the median wait time as of March 2023 was 211 days and I’m devastated. Not only have I seemingly been given false information, been uninformed and led to believe my treatment was something it has never been but I’m also wildly angry that had I known that I’d be waiting this long, I would’ve taken out private health cover, had my surgery, recovered and be a year into my new healed life rather than brought to tears daily due to living in 12hour surgery preparation with complex PTSD due to cancer treatment.

This is cancer related surgery and I feel no one cares!