News Item – Canadian hospitals struggle to cut wait times for breast reconstruction surgery

For Sarah Michaelis, waiting two years for a new breast was almost as agonizing as cancer itself.

The Toronto television producer was 36, and had only recently weaned her youngest daughter, when doctors told her in June of 2011 that the 10-centimetre lump in her chest was cancerous. Her left breast had to go.

“I didn’t feel like a woman any more,” she recalled, her voice wavering. “I’m going to cry, but it’s true. You’re bald and when you get out of surgery you don’t realize how flat it is, but it’s flat. There’s nothing there.”

Ms. Michaelis had to undergo chemotherapy and radiation first, but when she was ready six months later for breast reconstruction surgery, the health-care system was not ready for her. She waited nearly a year and a half more for a surgery slot.

Full article at: Globe and Mail