Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Saga Continues

After that last post things got kind of scarey. The following day when I saw the surgeon she did another ultrasound and thought she saw another suspicious area near the tumor as well as something near the nipple. She then proceeded to say if she had to remove that as well I would be so disfigured I would probably prefer to have a mastectomy. She decided to set up a consultation for me the following day with a plastic surgeon to discuss mastectomy and reconstruction, a geneticist to take a history and probably order genetic testing, and the oncologist to talk to me about chemotherapy.
That all really knocked me for a loop. I had been expecting we would discuss lumpectomy and radiation, but never had I considered mastectomy and chemotherapy. I left that afternoon very worried and upset.
I had told Billy not to worry about going down with me but after all of that I knew I had to have some support. I called him crying and he said he would come down and be with me for the rest of the time.
The next day we saw all those people. The plastic surgeon told me all about how he could rebuild my breasts after I had one or more removed. He would have to surgically alter the right one to match the left even if I didn't need to have it removed.
The geneticist had my blood drawn to test for all of the cancer markers since there is just about every cancer possible on my mother's side of the family.
The oncologist told me with the type of cancer I have chemotherapy would be necessary even if my lymph nodes were clear.
All of my worst fears were suddenly materializing.
The only bright spot in that day came when I met with the naturopath who works with the oncologist. He was very positive about the program I had put myself on to try to help my body heal itself and even suggested a few other herbs and supplements he knew to be therapeutic for cancer.
The surgeon had ordered a biopsy of the other areas of concern she saw. It was to be done Friday morning. When I went to have the ultrasound biopsy it was determined that the area in question was too small and hard to find for an ultrasound biopsy, and I would need an MRI biopsy instead. Because of various reasons, all of them technical, the radiologist and I decided not to do that at that time. I was really feeling overwhelmed. My world had been rocked completely out of its orbit.
We came home and decided to wait a couple of weeks until the genetic tests were in and let our brains digest all we had been told.
I should say here that everything we were told was based on studies about other types of breast cancer because the kind I have is so uncommon there haven't been any studies done on it specifically. There is a lot of controversy about how aggressive treatment needs to be.
After coming home I decided to see the surgeon here one more time just to get closure. I had pretty much decided to have whatever treatment I would get at CTCA in Newnan.
When I saw the surgeon in Rome he disagreed with pretty much everything they had told me at CTCA. He believes the tumor may actually be DCIS and I may not even need a lymph node biopsy. He also believes the most treatment I would need after surgery would be radiation; certainly not chemotherapy. So I now have two very different plans suggested. It seems to me that one is a minimalist approach where we do the only thing we are sure needs to be done. After the tumor is out it can be examined, categorized, and the next step will then become evident. The other plan is we assume the worst and do it all. At the moment I am feeling strongly that I prefer the minimalist plan.
The surgeon has assured me if the tumor is not DCIS as he suspects, or if I feel like I need some more advice, he will send the tumor or it and me anywhere I want to go. Apparently Sloan Kettering is the number one hospital for breast cancer in the country.
I, of course, am still eating raw and living food, still doing enemas for cleansing, and still hoping, as we all discuss and debate what my treatment will be, my body is launching all out war on the cancer in my breast. It would be wonderful if the damn thing just disappeared while we try to decide how to fight it.
The next time I post I will probably have made a decision about how to proceed from here.
Thanks to all for your prayers and well wishes.

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