Please everyone take the time to sign this petition it truly only takes about 10 seconds. Thank you.
Proposed Mastectomy Law Change    
(written by a surgeon);

I'll never forget the look in my patients eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the drains, new exercises and no breast. I remember begging the doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies.

So there I sat with my patient giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet 'Thank you' they muttered.

A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

This Mastectomy Bill is in Congress now. It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important. Please take the time and do it really quick! The Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill is important legislation for all women.
Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you're receiving this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support.. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

http://www.mylifetime.com/community/my-lifetime-commitment/breast-cancer/petition/breast-cancer-petition <http://www.mylifetime.com/community/my-lifetime-commitment/breast-cancer/petition/breast-cancer-petition>; 
This takes about 2 seconds. PLEASE PASS THIS ON to your 20 friends.

This hits close to home for me.

I had a family member who went in for a *lumpectomy* only to come out of the operating room with a double mastectomy.

To make matters worse, her husband was told that she would be released from the hospital only a couple of hrs after she awoke from the anesthesia.

Her husband pleaded with the doctors and the hospital administrators to allow her to at least spend 1 night, he even offered to pay for it out of his own pocket. They refused and told him that unless she was running a high temperature, there wasn't anything they could do for her there.

Disgusting!

Thanks for posting this............I'm off to sign it and to send it on to everyone in my address book.

For some reason I can't get the link to work.

Thanks redpanda!

Thank you redpanda, I did not receive replies until this morning.

What sad stories.


My mom had a double mastectomy and she was allowed to stay for several days until she was ready to go home. Of course, this was at the world's leading cancer hospital, MD Anderson. That's where I will go when it gets me (genetic).

I am in Canada where health care is free and I have never had a masectomy...but...I did have my gallbladder removed and as I was vomiting green they put me in a wheelchair, read me my discharge instructions and passed me off to my husband. I have no idea what they told me as I left.

Even where insurances are not needed, they still try to save the all mighty dollar and move people WAY too fast. I couldn't imagine having to deal with such an evasive surgery and have to leave the same day!!

I know the hospital I work at does not discharge such patients the same day - but we can't let this become the "norm" anywhere as it will eventually spread everywhere (if one place can do it the next place will, and so on).

I know that it took legislation to stop the "revolving door" deliveries required by some HMO's and insurance companies. My neighbor and I both had c-sections and came home on the same day. The difference is, I delivered on a Friday at a regular hospital, while she delivered at the HMO's hospital. I had three nights in the hospital, while she went home the day after the C-section. Oh--we lived in tri-level condos, so she couldn't avoid stairs if she didn't want to stay in the garage/laundry room.

It's sad that legislation is needed to provide decent medical care to women, but it seems like it is. Funny thing is, the same HMO that sent my neighbor home 36 hours after a C-section kept my FIL for three days after prostate surgery.