Jo Ann’s Journal

I finally get to meet my surgeon, Dr. A, today.  Even though I know my cancer is an early detection from the prior doctors’ describing it as small and very treatable, I am still anxious for a doctor who actually treats breast cancer to tell me what stage cancer it is and exactly what I can expect in treatment.

I go to the hospital at lunch to pick up the mammography & sonogram films and reports per the request of Dr. A’s office.  When I get back to my office, I hold them up to the window and look at them.  I know absolutely no more than I did before I looked at them, but at least I tried.

Then I pull out the reports.  I guess it’s my accountant nature, but I refuse to read the last one first (the biopsy).  Instead I read them in the order they had been taken, starting with my routine annual mammogram that first identified a possible problem.  I just about flip when I get to the sonogram where the tumor is measured.  I have only been told the tumor is really small, but have not been told the actual size.  It is 0.8 cm, which is about 1/3 inch.  I guess the reason that even the diagnostic doctor can’t feel it with her fingers is because it is so deep.  I don’t think of a 1/3 inch tumor as a really small, tiny tumor.

Bob meets me at Dr. A’s office.  I am surprised that Dr. A wants to examine me.  I figured this was just going to be a consultation based on the biopsy and films.  When she sees my very bruised breast, she whistles.  I guess everyone doesn’t bruise as badly as I have.  Half of my breast is black, yellow, green & blue.

She tries to feel the tumor with her fingers, but can’t.  She feels of my lymph nodes under my arms and says they feel fine (not swollen or anything).

Dr. A goes over all the mammography & sonogram film with us, explaining what she sees in them.  She even shows me that my right breast appears clear of dense places.  However, the left breast has several more, small dense places on it.  She says I will need to do a MRI on both breasts before the surgery to be sure there are no more malignant tumors.  She tells me that if there is anymore cancer, it will be visible on the MRI.  I ask her why we do invasive biopsies if a noninvasive MRI can show us the cancer.  It seems MRIs are really expensive.  She will have to justify my getting an MRI to the insurance company before they will approve it.

The prognosis is faxed over to the doctor’s office and I get to see it for the first time with Dr A.  She says the tumor appears to be a stage 1, but we will not know for sure until after the MRI & surgery.  If no more cancer tumors are found in the MRI, if the cancer has not spread to the surrounding tissue, and if the biopsies on the closest lymph nodes are clear, then it is a stage 1.  My tumor is elongate and appears to be contained inside a milk duct.   Chances are I will not have chemo treatment.  I will have radiation after surgery and hormonal therapy after that, because the cancer has estrogen receptors.  The cancer is a slow growing, nonaggressive cancer, which is very good.

We are going to put the surgery off about 2 weeks to let my bruises heal.  Dr. A indicates it will be easier to tell what she is doing during the lumpectomy if we let the bruising clear up first.  Being of the nature to get things done immediately, I wish we could move forward, but such is not the case.

In the mean time, I have an MRI to look forward to.  I am so glad we will be looking at both breast to make sure there is no more cancer present.  I want to get this all done and behind me quickly.

I will survive!  I will thrive! ~ Jo Ann