We got to the office early to fill out the paperwork. Then we were escorted into the exam room where Dr. S came in and talked about my medical history, my medications, my family's breast cancer history, and my new diagnosis. He was as disappointed as we were to learn that the Her2 part of the pathology wasn't back yet. We were anxiously awaiting that because that will pretty much secure your destiny with chemotherapy if you are positive. Being Her2 positive means the cancer cells can divide and grow more aggressively. The treatment is a chemo called Herceptin. I will have to wait maybe until the end of the week to hear that result. Dr S. then examined me and said he didn't feel my lymph nodes to be abnormal. Then he brought us into the conference room where he spent a good chunk of time with us talking about my cancer and my diagnosis and treatment plan. Having to have radiation is up in the air as is chemo at this point. I will have to have hormone therapy to shut off the estrogen and progesterone supply in my body, which is feeding my tumors. Speaking of tumors, I have 4. 2 are less than 1 cm and then one is 1.7cm and 1.8 cm. This puts me at a Stage 1. (You have to have a tumor of 2 cm to be bumped into stage 2.) Once we do surgery and find out the lymph node status, I will know my real staging. I did find out I have the infiltrating ductal along with the ductal carcinoma in situ. He wants to order an MRI to further check the breasts. This test should get done this week. Then he wants me to make appointments with the plastic surgeon, Dr. Gill and the oncologist, Dr. Khoury. He wants to make sure I don't need chemo before the surgery. And since I opted to and he suggested having a bilateral mastectomy, I will need plastics to do the reconstruction part. I hope to meet with them this week too. I pray I can get all three of those things on my TO DO list accomplished and maybe even on the same day, God willing!
My mind is racing and I don't have all the answers I hoped for but I have somewhat of a plan and I can breath a little easier for tonight.
Dr. Phillip Sutton