Breast Cancer Clinic Summary

A breast cancer clinic is a phenomenal thing.  We met with all the experts (surgeons, oncologists, cancer nurse, patient advocate, etc.) in basically one meeting, well, one-on-one over the course of a morning.  It was a tiring day, but a good opportunity to get the facts and all of the experts recommendations.  It's also getting a second, third, and fourth opinion!   I feel like we're all on the same page.  Very helpful!


The unanimous recommendations that came from the Tumor Board meeting (all the doctors met together to discuss my case) was that I have a PET scan to rule out any cancer that may have spread to other organs, genetic testing done, another biopsy on a lymph node that showed up on the MRI, neoadjuvant therapy (to shrink the tumor first), and a simple mastectomy.  


I don't think "simple" is really a word I would use with mastectomy, but I guess it's the medical way of saying it's not a radical mastectomy, which would include removing muscle and lymph nodes.


So, plans have changed a bit.  After a lot of prayer I do feel confident that the doctors recommendations are the way to go.  Surgery will come later at the end of March.  Next week is going to be a busy one.  But, as I have learned in the last two weeks, things can change, and quickly!
Monday - PET scan
Tuesday - port-a-cath surgery
Wednesday - oncologist meeting to set up therapy
Thursday - lymph node biopsy


Again, thank you to everyone for your continued prayers, concern, help and support!