July 22 Consult with the Surgeon

I am so lucky. I found a surgeon I really trust. (Thank you Trina for your recommendation! You were right on!)

Her name is Dr. Rocco and she's all the way down in Santa Maria and out of my insurance network. But, she is well worth the hour-long drive and the extra co-pay. She specializes in breast health, is the surgical director at the Marion Cancer Center and she treats me like a princess. (With the other surgeon I felt like I was struggling just to be treated like a human...what an upgrade!)

After considering the results of my mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy she suggested that I also have an MRI so she could get a really clear image of exactly where my cancer is. She explained that the cancerous cells aren't in a tidy clump like a melon ball...but spread out. She drew a picture of something that looked like a spiderweb crossed with a jelly-fish to illustrate this.

Depending on the MRI images she will tell me which kind of surgery to perform. The choices are:

A. a lumpectomy. This might not even change the size, shape or appearance of my breast. I would probably experience changes in sensitivity...but I think I can live with that. (Actually, the upside to all of this is that no matter what the treatment decision is...I can live with it. I do NOT have life threatening cancer. Yay!)

B. a lumpectomy and removal of my nipple. This is because of the location of the "lump." I cringe every time I think about this option. Ugh. eech. gross.

C. a masectomy. I guess the protocol is that if you lump spreads out over more than one quatrant of your breast...they just take the whole breast. According to Dr. R, my images show the "lump" spreading out from the 12 o'clock to the 3 o'clock position. That is one whole quadrant. I guess that's the Alpha quadrant. Thank goodness...I wouldn't want to be stuck in the Delta quadrant! (If you don't watch Star Trek...don't bother trying to understand that.)

Dr. Rocco also took a blood sample so she can have the gentic testing done to see if I am at great risk for recurring cancer. If it turns out that I have a BRCA gene mutation...then we might just opt to have a double masectomy. I probably don't though. I don't have a strong family history of breast cancer. So, I'm not going to worry about that until the results come back in August.

Even though we don't know what kind of surgery we are going to have, we have gone ahead and scheduled it for Friday the 8th of August. By then we'll know what the treatment will be. Until then, it makes me kind of sick on my stomach wondering what is going to happen.