Needing Your Voices of Experience Please

Jeanne D said:

Not sure what to say..
Except, just wait till you get the pathology report. That is next

Wednesday? There is no way to know what they will find until that is in. I am thinking

positive thoughts for you and praying for you Taleena.



♥Love, Jeanne♥

cabbott said:

Similar Story
I was first diagnosed way back in 2002. It seems like yesterday until I look at the calendar. It took a long time to get diagnosed and through with my final surgery. I started with a lump discoverd on the mammogram that turned out to be just a fluid filled cyst back in December 2001. However, the radiologist who was kind enough to speak to me just after the scan told me that sometimes cysts suddenly appear when a spot of DCIS plugs a duct.I asked if anything else besides the cyst looked weird and she noted a little white calcification. It wasn't the sort to be indicative of cancer, but she was watching it. I spotted another calcification on the scan that day however she said it was too small for her to be overly concerned about. She had me come back 6 months later for a followup, but she was "sure" everything was fine. I actually got a report stating that everything was fine after the followup in June, but 24 hours later a second report came out that led to a stereotactic biopsy. Nope, I don't know why she did a second report, but she did and it was asking for the biopsy next to that larger calcification spot. Fun, fun! I was not enjoying a minute of this and couldn't believe I might have a problem. The path report did not agree with an outside lab that I might have a problem. But since both reports agreed that I may have some atypical hyperplasia (sometimes cancer cells hide near such lovelies), I was scheduled for a lumpectomy. The surgeon I had would only pay attention to the larger calcification and totally ignored the little one over to one side that I had spotted back in December. I have never stooped to playing the part of a helpless woman to get a man to help me but once. While a different radiologist was putting the needle and wire in during the mammogram so the surgeon could do the lumpectomy (mind you, I did not have a cancer diagnosis at this point--the lumpectomy was purely for exploratory purposes!) I batted my eyes at the doctor and asked sweetly if HE saw any other spots needing checking. I really played up the dumb blonde act. He shrugged, asked for my scans, calmly took a look,turned gray, and then started yelling all over the place at the techs. "Why wasn't this biopsied? Why wasn't that checked?" Stuff like that...I figured my breast was history at that point, but somehow they put another needle in and did a lumpectomy and a biopsy on my tiny rightie and it looked okay coming out of surgery. Perhaps it was swollen, but I could hardly tell the difference except for two little parallel lines that looked like I had been scratched by a kitten. Unfortunately for me, 2 weeks later both the outside lab and the hospital agreed that I had cancer in not one but two tiny spots. I couldn't do multiple surgeries to get clean margins and still fit a bra since I started as a 32 nearly B size to begin with, so it meant a mastectomy. At that point I went to the best breast surgeon at a University teaching hospital with a well-known breast clinic that I could get to. The surgeon there was terrific, but he agreed that not only did I have cancer but I definitely needed the mastectomy. I had two spots of cancer that were too far apart to remove and still be cosmetically acceptable. There was also the issue of how many other tiny spots might be growing but hadn't shown up yet. Radiation can help, but that would be taking a risk with the kind of cancer I appeared to have. Sometimes cancer is in a discrete lump, but sometimes it is more like scattered dandelion weeds in a yard. I appeared to have the scattered kind. He wasn't happy about it because it messed up his stats. He prided himself on usually managing to do lumpectomies. Doctors! I wasn't so happy either!!!! Oh well. I did ask the question about staging. He said that the staging would be judged on the size of the largest spot (for me 4 mm, the other was only 2 mm) and the state of the nodes. I lucked out I guess as I was stage 1. Nodes were completely negative.

By the way, I have known women that had spots of DCIS in multiple spots of their breast that had multiple lumpectomies and kept their breast. One lady who is still doing well had over 7 spots. Her hubbie couldn't tolerate the idea of a mastectomy and so she did the multiple removals followed by radiation. She did not want to talk to me about my surgical experiences, so I don't know all she did. She is still alive and looking healthy so far as I can tell and we both had cancer about the same time, so I guess it worked for her. She was built much bigger than I was. The path report and a good consultation with the best breast specialist can tell you what your best options are. You can also decide what helps you sleep best at night. I am sorry I had cancer and had to have surgery, but it helped me to get a second opinion from an expert that seriously tried to save breasts whenever possible. When he said I needed the mastectomy, at least I knew I really did. If you have any questions at all, now is the time for a second opinion or even a third if they disagree. Good luck!

C. Abbott