Swedish visit

Yesterday I met with a surgeon at Swedish. Today I'm meeting with an entire team at SCCA. The appointment is from 12:00-5:00. My gut feeling is that I'm going to go with SCCA. I haven't even met this surgeon yet, but it makes sense to get treatment where I work, and it's the one that feels right. I guess I'll know after today. It will be interesting to see if this surgeon says the same thing as the one I saw yesterday. If so, I'll mostly likely be getting additional diagnostic testing done to determine if the other 2 suspicious areas are cancerous. I'm still hoping to get a lumpectomy as opposed to mastectomy and I want to exhaust all options to go that route. Even if it means another MRI. Actually, it would be a biopsy under MRI. I'm not even sure how that would work. If, in the end, mastectomy is the most reasonable choice, then so be it. I'll go for the bilateral mastectomy and then get new boobs! A little light in my storm and not a bad birthday present when I turn 41 :)

Phone call from a new friend

I had gotten the name and number of a woman who just had a mastectomy from a co-worker. She was seen at Swedish and we thought she had surgery done by the surgeon at Swedish I've been referred to. It turns out that she (Beth) had her surgery by a different surgeon, but she was still great to talk to.

Beth told me to just breathe and be patient, even though I'm feeling so overwhelmed by everything. She said there is no point in seeing an oncologist until after I have surgery, which makes sense to me. All the oncologist can tell me at this point are potentials and options and possibilities. I don't want to hear any of that stuff. I want to have my surgery, find out if the cancer has spread, and come up with a plan. Beth also said to definitely get the MRI. It's important and probably the surgeon at Swedish won't see me without it. So, I think I will call the surgeon I saw today and see if I can get that set up. Actually, I'm going to email my family doc, who is on vacation until Wednesday to see if she should set it up or if the surgeon should. I'm also going to call Swedish tomorrow and just verify all of that. If the surgeon in Seattle wants an MRI as well, I don't see the point of seeing her until I have that.

Another thing she mentioned was a test called Oncotype. It's for women with breast cancer with a negative node biopsy and positive estrogen receptors. I have the positive receptors, so I'm halfway there. The test can predict the chance of recurrence as low, medium or high. Low is 7-8% chance of recurrence. That's what Beth has, so she doesn't have to get radiation or chemo. Even though I don't know if I qualify for the test, I am going to call them tomorrow. I want to find out if my new insurance will cover the testing.

We talked a lot about sleeping. I have been really surprised this week at how easy it is for me to sleep. I don't sleep that well anyway, but I've pretty much slept through the night the past 3 nights. Beth is the same way. It's a coping mechanism for the stress.

Speaking of sleeping, I need to get some. It's nice to know I have someone else to add to my list who has been down the road I'm about to go down and who I can call with any questions or if I need to express my frustration and upsetedness to someone who knows what I'm going through.

First visit with the surgeon

I was surprised by how open the surgeon was. He talked about the different options, but is inclined to start with breast conserving surgery, which works for me. However, before that determination can be made, he wants me to get an MRI of both breasts just to make sure there aren't any hidden lumps that weren't seen on mammogram. Since I have two areas of concern, the tumor and the micro calcs, if any others show up then I'm most likely in for a mastectomy.

The lumpectomy surgery would consist of taking out both areas in one large excision and also doing a sentinel node biopsy to see if there is any cancer spread to the lymph nodes. During the surgery, the pathologist will be able to determine if the node is positive or negative. If it's positive, they will take out about 1/3 of the lymph nodes.. basically all the nodes in the axilla. Although the surgery would be under a general anesthetic, I would go home the same day.

Since I plan to see another surgeon for a 2nd opinion, we didn't make any definite plans for the MRI.

Oh, and he said it is normal for the tumor to feel larger and closer to the skin. The biopsy caused the tissues to swell. At least I'm not imagining things!