Surgery now or never, women told

BY PENNY WARDLE

Marlborough women having breast cancer surgery should be aware that reconstruction is a "now or never" option.

Blenheim woman Liz Chapman had surgery to remove cancer from her breast in May 2001, followed by several weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

She did not consider getting reconstructive surgery at the time because she was focused only on getting better. "My surgeon said at the time, `you're bound to change your mind'."

It was common for women to delay reconstruction until the threat of cancer had passed, he told her.

She has been cancer-free for nearly 10 years, and six months ago started thinking about reconstructive surgery.

Marking nearly a decade cancer-free was a positive thing for Mrs Chapman and she wanted "to feel like a woman again".

The production manager at Saint Clair Family Estate said: "With my job, I get to go to some nice events and wear nice evening dresses, and it would be nice to be able to wear scoop necks and things like that."

But her specialist told her she could not even join a waiting list to have the operation done publicly. She said she had been told that if she lived in Auckland or Australia it would be a different story.

Private surgery would cost up to $30,000, which she was not prepared to spend.

Mrs Chapman said it was "terrible" that women did not have access to surgery nationwide.

"The thing that annoys me the most is I've worked the whole time ... I kept my job going and paid all my taxes."

The rules on mastectomies have changed and it's not fair, says Blenheim woman Lynmarie Watts.

Mrs Watts had breast cancer in 2004 and was offered breast reconstruction along with a lumpdectomy. If she changed her mind, she would be entitled to reconstruction at a later time.

In 2008 she had a new cancerous growth discovered in the same breast and this time was told that reconstruction was a "now or never" option. Otherwise, reconstruction became cosmetic surgery and had to be paid for under the private system.

"It is really hard when you have been blown away by breast cancer. At the time you think, 'just take the breast away for goodness sake' and are reluctant to have another major surgery thrown in on top of a mastectomy," said Mrs Watts.

Eventually, Mrs Watts opted for the operation because she thought putting a prosthesis in place would be too much trouble.

Cancer Society Marlborough manager Margot Wilson said women who had a mastectomy used to get reconstruction done within two years. Now, because reconstruction had been recategorised as cosmetic surgery, it was not a high priority.

"Reconstruction is not treated as part of treatment which the Cancer Society argues it should be," she said.

A Nelson Marlborough District Health Board spokeswoman said primary breast reconstruction done at the time of the mastectomy was available through the board but later reconstructions could only be done through Hutt Valley DHB.

Hutt DHB acting chief executive Michael Hundleby said patients from Marlborough and Nelson could not currently join the waiting list because of the backlog of patients.

"Since October last year we have been undertaking delayed breast reconstructions for approximately 20 women who had been given certainty of treatment when we stopped taking referrals for delayed breast reconstructions.

"However, we are still only able to perform one or two delayed breast reconstruction operations each month so, at this stage, it will be towards the end of this year before we have completed all of those operations."

By then the DHB hoped to have a plan for increasing the number of operations it could perform and addressing the backlog of women.

- with Fairfax reporters

- The Marlborough Express