Where to go for treatment

New Flower said:

Hi Sara

Welcome to the boards. I Usually  go with experience or recommendation . You need to have a breast surgeon it is alway better than general. You need to feel comfortable with a surgeon of your choice before your surgery.

Good luck and keep us posted

Thank you.  I was thinking similarly.

Double Whammy said:

It sort of depends

on the type and stage (unknown at this time I'm sure) of bc you have.  We don't know diddily when we start out in this journey, but I know my cancer was removed and treated well because I see folks who specialize in breast cancer.  The surgeon who did my lumpectomy also performed a mini breast reduction (oncoplasty) to rearrange tissue and sort of match my breast to the other one (my bc breast was larger).  My cosmetic result is pretty good, although my goal was just the get the stupid thing outa me.   I also think I would have most likely done  well with the docs in my small town that treat all cancers - and are general surgeons.  But that's because I had early stage breast cancer that was only Grade 2.  I think I was pretty routine in terms of treatment standards and probably would have had the same treatments (chemo and radiation) in either setting.  I continue to receive my care at a academic institution because I used to work there and because I have a higher level of familiarity and comfort with them.

I took a neighbor who had been dx'd with pancreatic cancer to UCSF a couple of years ago.  He was diagnosed locally and they wanted to do radiation.  We saw a pancreatic cancer specialist/guru who said (and I will always remember this) that community oncologists (and surgeons) are perfectly fine for routine cancers, but when you have something special, you need the experts.  He did not have radiation.  He had some special chemotherapy and it is 3 years later and he is still NED.  The community oncologist who now follows him is amazed.

You look young with a lot of living to do ahead of you.  As others have said, get recommendations from folks you trust (with medical knowledge, not your neighbor who "just loves" so and so) and go with it.  Most of us go through this in a Forest Gump fashion (me included) and learn as we go.  Do your homework

 

 

Sounds like good advice.  It's very early stage breast cancer.  Supposedly.  I am going to be 46 this month and have been through a lifetime of emotional trauma so I wasn't too surprised by this.  But my mother passed away this past July from not getting early treatment for her case, which was completely different than mine is right now.  So going to the local treatment center is another emotionally undesireable idea for me, as I took her to many treatments.  I have been reading that they can shorten radiation time with some of the new techniques, and be more specific as to the area treated, but I am not sure if that applies to my situation.  I'm educating myself, but people like to hurry you through this and I don't like that.

I want it out and treated but I want to make informed choices.