Breast surgeon appointment was this morning...

Gingersnappy

I just got back from my breast surgeon appointment. Such a whirlwind! They sent blood samples for genetic testing. I've got an MRI on Friday. On Tuesday I meet with the breast reconstruction plastic surgeon. Surgery is tentatively scheduled for August 21 with reconstruction likely to be at a later date. I won't be returning to school (I'm a teacher) with my students (they start on the 24th) and am very sad about that. I'm leaning towards a mastectomy for a couple of reasons, so they say the recovery time is 4-6 weeks for that alone. I know I'm positive for estrogen and progesterone receptors, so there will be therapy associated with that. She mentioned possibly needing chemotherapy, too. They're also waiting on the HER-2 status. I forgot (duh!) to ask the name of the type of cancer, but the pathology report says it's "an infiltrating duct carcinoma with essentially no tubal formation, grade 3 nuclear pleomorphism and four mitoses per ten high powered field yielding a modified Nottingham score of 3+3+1=7 for a grade 2 lesion." Care to interpret? So much to take in! Thanks for reading!

Ginger

SpecialK

I would say so far you have IDC which is both ER+ and PR+, grade 2, with Her2 status pending. The therapy for ER+ is a daily pill, whether you need chemo would be determined by tumor size and position, nodal status and potentially an Oncotype Dx score if you turn out to be Her2-.

Peabrain

I would definitely recommend an appointment with an oncologist to get their opinion. Also, I don't see anything about radiation, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to schedule an apt with the radiologist. If your tumor is small enough for a lumpectomy, ask about IORT, radiation during surgery.

This is one of the hardest times, while you are gathering info, with no precise plan.

Best of luck to you.