Working with surgeon on timelines

Mao

I am scheduled for surgery on Thursday, Feb 7. My surgeon's office has been rigid with timelines. I have a prepaid planned vacation in two weeks but just learned that this office provides the Mammosite procedure. I am indeterminate grade DCIS. Apparently the office administers the catheter on a Thursday and the procedure takes place the following Mon-Fri. (My vacation begins Feb 21 (Thurs) and returns Feb 26 (Tues)). How can I convince him to wait three weeks to start the procedure? Is there an added risk to waiting that long besides my own discomfort? I'd like to have the catheter inserted during surgery, but the nurse has asked me to wait to ask since he wont know if he has reached adequate margins.

Natters

I asked 2 separate surgeons and both agreed it would be OK to postpone my surgery a couple months, despite having high grade DCIS. So i dont see why ou couldnt wait three weeks. Apparently, it takes a while to spread, and waiting a couple months wouldn't really affect my prognosis - so probably it's the same for you?. I was ER+ but I dunno if they were taking that into account or not (hormone-positive cancers generally being slower growing).



As for that Mammosite procedure, I would definitely take the extra time to research up on the side effects and complications before signing up for it.



Good luck! I know it's a confusing and frustrating time.

ballet12

You can probably safely postpone the surgical procedure, but it sounds to me like you have several issues that have to be resolved.  First of all, you would need to see if you get adequate margins, as you state, and in my case that took three surgeries.  Second of all, I wouldn't recommend jumping into doing Mammosite without consulting first with a radiation oncologist.  The fact that a surgical office offers Mammosite doesn't necessarily mean that it is appropriate for your situation.  As Natters noted above, even if you desire Mammosite and it is appropriate for you, you should research the side effects and complications beforehand.  If your DCIS is extensive, it may be more appropriate to do whole breast radiation.  DCIS presents differently than early stage invasive breast cancer, where the tumor may be smaller and more circumscribed, whereas DCIS spreads out along ducts or is multifocal.  Good luck.