June 26 -TUESDAY put on my calendar - call for a mammo - got back from Conference on the 23rd; in my head bump receded in between now and when I first felt it but "it's back" with this cycle. Mammo people says because I am not due until Aug for my annual - I will need to go to my dr. to get a referral.
June 27 WED. see my primary Dr.'s P.A. - - Stacie Anderson - she does an exam and gets me the referral
June 28 THURSDAY see my dentist (irrelavent)
June 29 FRIDAY go for the Mammo - they do films on both breasts; however on the right one they take approximately 10 films over 3 time periods (films; wait - while doc reviews; more films). I assume they are just having a hard time getting a good image due to the location. They had to pull so much skin from my lower chest wall - to get the pics - ouchie. Outcome is that they refer me to a surgeon for sonogram and possible biopsy. No one is telling me anything other than that. I start getting nervous. Annoying side note: Barry Manilow blasts in the pt. waiting room the whole time.
Freak out on the phone with Thad immediately following. We go to lunch - while at lunch Stacie (the P.A.) calls and gives me the surgeon's name and number (Dr. Praeger). She remarks "don't worry things are different now, it won't be at all like it was for your Mom" -- at that I fall apart. Still they are not saying anything. I call Dr. Praeger's office and make an appt., I ask the receptionist what kind of surgeon is he/what kind of doctor. She hesitantly says "well, he's a breast specialist" I ask "A breast specialist?" (wtf.) She says "a breast cancer specialist." FINELY - someone says the word.
July 3rd TUESDAY- Thad and I go to Dr. Praeger's. Sunny is his nurse, she admires my socks - the ones that say "BAD ASS" and have an arrow pointing up. According to Dr. Praeger -- the mammo people rated my cancer a 5 on the scale.
BIRADS SCALE
0 Incomplete Your mammogram or ultrasound didn't give the
radiologist enough information to make a clear diagnosis; follow-up imaging is
necessary
1 Negative There is nothing to comment on; routine screening
recommended
2 Benign A definite benign finding; routine screening
recommended
3 Probably Benign Findings that have a high probability of
being benign (>98%); six-month short interval follow-up
4 Suspicious Abnormality Not characteristic of breast
cancer, but reasonable probability of being malignant (3 to 94%); biopsy should
be considered
5 Highly Suspicious
of Malignancy Lesion that has a high probability of being malignant (>=
95%); take appropriate action
So I am still not sure if I understand why no one said anything until then -- or I am outraged.
So the Dr. did an exam and a sonogram (which is cool cuz you can see everything he sees). And I knew right away based on prior sonograms that this was different and weird. It looked like the lost jigsaw puzzle piece, a weird star-fish looking thing which was not a big black hole (fluid filled) cyst but was grey on the inside - like tissue but not like breast tissue.
Then he did the biopsy (BIG NEEDLE) and again that was pretty cool cuz you could see the needle for the numbing agent and then the big needle going through the tumor and taking it's sample. The samples looked like tubes of snot, only vanilla ice-cream colored.
He informed me he felt like it was cancer and that if it wasn't he didn't know what it could be. He gave a brief description of expected treatment for how big and how early it was caught. He said he expected to do surgery next week.
He assures me the results of the biopsy will be back on Thursday and they will call me; as does the nurse.
July 5th THURS. - 4pm - I call the Dr.'s office - no pathology report generated in the system yet "hopefully we will have it on friday so you don't have to wait the weekend."
July 6th FRIDAY 2pm I call the Dr.'s office and leave a message for the nurses. 3pm I get a call from Dr. Praeger. It's invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common form of breast cancer. It's highly differentiated under the microscope "it looks really nasty." He had already discussed the findings with the chief oncologist - S. Soule; and set up an appt for me on Monday. He said he expected they would want to do genetic testing and that surgery probably wouldn't happen until a few weeks from now.
July 9th MONDAY - Thad and I go to Dr. Soule's - she's tells us good news about the tumor - hormone receptor positive and HER2 negative. She agrees that genetic testing is important as the 20% of women who are positive have an upwards of 80% likelihood of getting breast cancer again. And a 40% (?) increased likelihood of getting ovarian cancer. She says the tumor is rated stage 1, grade 3 and is small (less than 2 cm). She does an exam and agrees the tumor is small even maybe only 1 cm and that she doesn't think lymph nodes are involved. We like her - she's like us politically and is warm. Back up to Dr. Praeger, he examines me again "to refresh his memory" and states that if I am gene positive I will of course want a prophylactic double mastectomy. (ah. no?) And later that of course I will have my ovaries removed (what? huh? ). I remind myself he's a surgeon. He's watching out for survival. We talk about options. We talk about 2nd opinions. He spends the entire time talking to my boobs. Weird, but maybe not weird. He's a good guy.
July 10th - request all materials sent to St. Louis' Siteman Cancer center for a 2nd opinion. They review the material before they will even set an appointment. We are waiting, waiting for an appt. and waiting for the results of the genetic test.
July 11th - Siteman calls the appt. is set for next wednesday with the surgeon. Still need to get an appt. for the Oncology part.
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