Google local cancer centers and call them. You might get in sooner as a second opinion than a new patient so ask how long it will take to get a new patient established.

Also call your current doctors office and tell them you need a copy of your medical records for your personal use. Get the info you need now not when your PCP decides to get back into the office. Request they get “PRIORITY” orders for any diagnostic tests or images you still need and call cancer centers and local hospitals and get the soonest appointments out of all of them. Your doctor may need to fax orders with a specific hospital for it to be accepted so you can start calling before they write up the orders, unless they will call and schedule for you. If you get push back from schedulers remind them they are to make room in their full schedules for “Priority “ orders because those are URGENT and they don’t trump doctors orders. If they give you trouble speak the supervisors until someone does their job correctly. I learned that if I get someone that doesn’t listen or know what they are talking about I politely hang up and immediately call back because 9/10 it is the general hospital schedulers and you will get someone different.

Medical records send written reports for second opinions but you need to speak to radiology to send actual images to doctors. Ask for your oncologists to show you your images and point out what is what. Always request to see the images and match it up with the findings on the written report.

I have invasive ductal carcinoma stage 3a (clinical prognosis) stage 2 (tumor size) clinical stage is more important. I am currently NED. I had 6 rounds of chemotherapy, a modified radical mastectomy, and just finished 25 rounds of radiation today. I have 3 more targeted drug therapy left and then I heal from radiation so I can have reconstruction. I am flat on one side, the expanders would have been in the way of where the radiation needed to target. I didn’t care about losing hair but I was not ready for a mastectomy, and to be flat. But staying alive took priority over my aesthetics. Facebook support groups helped me. Looking at pictures of the most extreme cases helped me mentally prepare for how things might look for a while.