Why a woman worries her vital cancer surgery could be cancelled ‘at the drop of a dime’

Anne Aubie is scheduled to undergo surgery for breast cancer next week. The Montreal-area woman was first diagnosed in January of this year.

“I feel wonderful,” she told Global News about finally getting a date for her Dec. 22 surgery. “But,” she added, “I know that it can be cancelled at the drop of a dime.”

Her fear stems from her treatment having already been delayed following recent strikes by health-care workers.

Aubie’s cancer journey has been filled with constant worry, made worse by what she says is a broken health system.

From the very beginning, Aubie said she was facing delays.

“When I first went to get my mammogram, I wasn’t getting the results quick enough from the hospital,” she said. “So I went to a private clinic and I paid a lot of money to have the mammogram and the biopsies done.”

Aubie started chemotherapy in May and on Sept. 15, her doctor gave her the good news: “No more chemo!”

Her lump, she was told, had shrunk significantly, readying the path for surgery in four to six weeks to remove the tumour and several lymph nodes.

Well, four weeks went by, and then six and Aubie said she still hadn’t received a call to schedule her surgery.

“This is going on, and on, and on,” she said, adding that with the help of her sister she was making phone calls and writing letters contacting everyone from her surgeon to her oncology nurse to the hospital’s ombudsman.

Despite them wanting to help, Aubie said she was told there was nothing they could do.

She says her doctor blamed the delays on the ongoing strike.

“My surgeon called me one night and said: ‘My hands are tied, there’s such a shortage of staff and with the nurses strike … there’s nothing I can do.”

The McGill University Health Centre, where Aubie is being