DCIS-MI

dimples85

DCIS-MI

dimples85

Hi, I'll be 49 in a few days and I was recently diagnose with DCIS in my milk duct. I still can't wrap my head around it. Six months after the birth of my son (2002) I found a lump.  The surgeon at the time said it was so profound that the next day I was on the operating table.  I asked her if it had anything to do with me not being able to breast feed. She quickly dismiss my question.  It turns out that after surgery it was a inflamed milk duck. To this day my breast hurts.  In 2008 my mamo came bad abnormal, the biopsy was benign.  I elected to have surgery which revealed scar tissue.  This time around I was expecting a similar result. Last Friday I had a lumpectomy and the doctor got back to me saying she wants to go back in and take more tissue since one of the margins was close. She also informed me that I have micro invasion. She said there's a 2% chance of invasion so I'm electing to have my nodes check because I'll a nervous wreck if I don't. My questions are, 1) what is it like having a few nodes removed?  My doctor said she would only remove the one(s) that would most likely be affected. 2) since I will be doing radiation wouldn't that kill any cells that escape? 3) I have my post op on Tuesday are there any important question I should ask?

Annette47

I had a micro-invasion and chose lumpectomy with sentinel node biopsy.   Prior to the surgery, they inject you with a radioactive dye.  Apparently this can be painful, but I was also injected with lidocaine at the same time and didn't find it painful at all.   During the surgery, they take the nodes that "light" up with the dye as this indicates they are first one(s) to capture anything leaving the breast.   How many they take depends on your anatomy - my mom had the same thing done and only one "lit up"; for me it was 3 that were clustered together.

I will be honest, I found the recovery from the sentinel node biopsy to be much more painful than from the lumpectomy, although neither were particularly onerous.  I had the two procedures done at the same time, so it wasn't always easy to separate which was causing what.   A bigger issue is having to be on guard against lymphedema, which is a lifetime possibility any time nodes are removed.   So far so good with no problems.   I mostly make sure to put neosporin on any minor cuts, hangnails and the like (even if I wouldn't have normally) and request blood draws and blood pressure to be done on the other arm ... not a big deal in the scheme of things.    As my doctor said - if you are awake and conscious, ask them to do it on the other arm, but if you are in a car accident or the like and unconscious, don't worry about it - you'd have bigger problems at that point.

Radiation is done to the breast only (unless your nodes are known to be affected), so would kill any cells that escaped the main tumor but remain in the breast.   In the very unlikely case that any have escaped the breast, they would not be affected by the radiation - in that case you might require chemo, but if your tumor is highly estrogen receptive, the anti-hormonals (Tamoxifen if you are pre-menopausal) might be just as effective and are certainly safer.

This site has some good information about what to ask, but I would certainly want to know about the margins (did they get good ones with the re-excision), the nodes (were they clear?  They'll get an initial idea during surgery, but the final results usually come a few days later), and what is the hormonal status of the tumor (ER, PR, and if large enough to test the micro-invasion, HER - HER does not matter as much for the DCIS portion, and if the micro is really small may not affect treatment either).

Moderators

Dimple85, Welcome to BCO and our caring, compassionate and well informed community. You will find personal experiences and great information here. We are so glad that you reached out and joined this forum. Here is a link to info on our site about Lymph Nodes Please keep us informed and let us know how your post - op appt goes. The Mods