When Annie heard she needed a follow-up she underwent most testing within a day in a private clinic.

Transcript

It is not often that a doctor tells you that he is worried. So I panicked a little bit. I thought that I had insurance so I went to a private clinic and I got an appointment right away, three days after. On Monday morning, I spent the whole day doing tests. First it was supposed to be only a breast ultrasound, but finally while doing the examination, the surgeon decided that a mammogram and a biopsy would be done. So I was thinking that things were not looking good. Specially that during the weekend I had looked on the Internet to see what they were saying about the inflammatory cancer. In French there was nothing much, but in English there was a little bit, but it was stating that it was fast, aggressive and deadly. So I was a little discouraged especially since the doctor at the private clinic thought that it was metastatic and consequently that I was too late.

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• Reconstruction surgery – Annie
  Annie had a lot of skin removed due to her inflammatory breast cancer; she was advised to wait 2 years before thinking about reconstruction.
• Surgery – Annie
  Annie describes how she felt immediately after having a double mastectomy.
• Relating to health care professionals – Annie
  Annie expected to have to fight to be able to switch healthcare professionals but it was an easy process.
• Testing and diagnosis – Annie
  When Annie heard she needed a follow-up she underwent most testing within a day in a private clinic.
• First symptoms – Annie
  Annie, diagnosed with a rare form of inflammatory breast cancer, noticed that her breast was red, hot, painful, and swollen.
• Work and finances – Annie
  The support from colleagues does not always happen as we would like, explains Annie.
• Recurrent and metastatic (advanced) breast cancer – Annie
  It was difficult for Annie to wait for several weeks for the test results.
• Follow-up care and the risk of recurrence – Annie
  Annie had support through a Facebook group involving women in a similar situation.