Post-surgery Exam Appointment

Ahhhhh, some relief by way of information! :-) The doctor DID have more than 15 min. to spare! :-) Ha! He's quite throrough and informative, and he answered a lot of my questions before I could ask them. I'm thankful to have a good, experienced and communicative doctor.

Two forms of cancer were found: Invasive (infiltrating) Ductal Carcinoma and Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. I guess they're close friends, as they're walking hand-in-hand together in my case. The IDC came within 2 mm of the margin of tissue removed. The type that came right to the margin is the in situ one. However, they believe that "in situ" leads to the other. Therefore, this ol' girl doesn't want to mess around. When in question-- take more tissue. That's my motto!

Two sentinel lymph nodes were removed. The first one testsed positive for some multiple micromastastes (sp?), however, the adjacent tissue was malignancy free. The second node tested negative (benign).

As I understand it, there isn't a developed way to determine whether or not existing nodes are positive, so the safest route, in my book, is to remove the remaining nodes altogether. However, that option will come with a price: I will have a more involved surgery, an overnight stay in the hospital, have a drain, and--- the biggie is there would be a 15-20% chance of developing lymphodema. :-/ If I weigh the chance to preserve life against some lymphodema/discomfort, I would obviously choose to be safe!

The surgeon strongly recommends running these things by the oncologist to get her input, although his personal opinion is that I should have more tissue and the nodes removed. I was personally "there" at that conclusion before he shared his thoughts. I don't bungy cord jump because of the risk facctors, and I am not interested in keeping any potentially cancerous ANYTHING in my body. :-)

The tumor is both estrogen and progesterone receptor positive which somehow means I am probably a good candidate for hormone therapy at some point. I expect that chemo is going to be necessary as well, and we'd already talked about radiation being the course of treatment for a lumpectomy patient. I think I'm going to have a gamut of "stuff" to contend with.

I told the surgeon I feel like this news (node involvement, more surgery due to the margin issue) is a set-back. He said it's not that, but it just means we'll take a different route toward my cure. He said we can probably do the surgery in two to three weeks, but it's necessary for my body to heal more first. And, he's going on vacation. :-) I guess it'd be selfish to ask him to cancel his vacation just to perform my surgery, huh? :-D

He picked the particular oncologist I'll be seeing for some good reasons. I feel confident that the referral is adequate. I look forward to meeting with her and I already have six questions on a sheet for her. :-)

I have decided that if the next surgery doesn't provide clear margins, I'll donate the entire breast to research!! ;-) Any tissue they take from me --- I want it to go to go research. We need a cure for breast cancer. It's far too prevalant! And, my heart goes out to women around the world where screenings aren't available to most people, as well as to uninsured women in America and elsewhere, because I am sure that ladies are dying and they're not even sure what's wrong with them--- breast cancer. It sneaks up on us and how would we ever know it's there unless we can feel it or have a mammogram?!

And, what is up with the new recommendation that women do not need to begin having routine mammograms until the age of 50?! HELLO! I was 40 when mine was detected by a mammogram screening. Had my doctor not sent me for the test, and had I not had insurance, my cancer could have spread before I reached 50 and I could have been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. What if insurance companies adopt this recommendation to not cover screenings until a woman is 50 years old? WHAT IF... ?

Speaking of staging--- I'm either at Stage 1 or 2. I thought that I'd be catagorized as a stage 2 patient, because I have node involvement. The surgeon told me that because I have a micromastasteses in the one node, it puts me at Stage 1. I don't know if all of my test results are in yet---

Well, what a relief to have more understanding! And, before leaving the doctor's office I asked if he still feels that my case is CURABLE. He said "Yes." I asked if it is AS curable even with the node involvement. He still gave a firm "Yes!" I told him I'm going to put that thought in my head. He said that if it jumps out, to put it right back in there. :-)

Thank you, God, for good doctors!