Surgery Results
I had my surgery on a Thursday morning. I was told that my results would be through maybe Monday, but probably Tuesday. The weekend passed quickly; thankfully. I had decided that I wouldn't hear anything on Monday so that day wasn't bad. Tuesday however was the worst. The phone rang, it was a charity looking for donations, then my husband, basically everyone but my surgeon! Eventually she rang me at 5pm, the wait was over.
She had removed an 18mm grade 3 IDC and a 30mm DCIS. Margins around the IDC were excellent, one around the DCIS was only 2mm, the rest were really good. Two stray cancer cells were found in the subcapsular area of the one lymph node that was removed.
Although she thought more surgery would not be required, she wanted to discuss my results with various oncologists and pathologists that she meets with regularly to get their opinion. It was now going to be an agonising wait until Friday afternoon when I saw her again.
When I saw her on Friday, she removed my dressings, that was the most unpleasant part of this whole process so far and we discussed my results again in some more detail. The DCIS had taken me a bit by suprise as I had no idea it was there. Everyone at the meeting agreed that my smallest margin was fine and the lymph node issue was not an issue. No more surgery, yay :)
So I'm off to see my husbands oncologist to discuss chemo options, I think we should get a family discount. I've got a meeting booked with a radiation oncologist at the end of October.
My surgeon has also recommended I see a geneticist for testing. Although we do not have a prevalence for any sort of cancer in my family, my great grandmother had breast cancer and I have other relatives that have had lumps removed that nobody is supposed to know about.
I have two sisters and two daughters, for my own peace of mind, I think I'd like to know if I have the BRCA gene mutation. My surgeon thinks the likelihood is small, but you just never know.
So now I'm playing the waiting game to see the oncologist as he's currently on leave. I'd just like to get my treatment plan on paper now. I have a friend visiting from back home at the end of November and there's plenty of wine that needs to be drunk as this year is being equally rubbish to her.
