Forgoing excision?

blueberry89

Hi everyone

I had a topic weeks ago after having a biopsy of a lump found at my yearly physical. Long story short, it showed to be a radial scar and excision was set up to make sure no malignancy was hidden in there. I am due to have the surgery tomorrow.

I got a call from the hospital this morning to go over details and got the news that with our high-deductible insurance plan we would owe a little over 2.5k. There are options to set up a payment plan but I cannot fathom spending that much when the surgeon told me only something like 10% of these cases end up finding cancer.

I'm waiting for a call back from the surgeon. I remember her saying the other option was to keep coming back for ultrasounds or mammograms every few months or so but she really thought the excision was the way to go. I'm going to see what she thinks but I'm leaning toward cancelling the whole thing. It isn't that I don't have the money-I just didn't realize I'd be spending so much.

What do you ladies think? This ordeal is a pain and I'm glad I found out about the cost beforehand even if only by one day. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, I feel silly now.

MelissaDallas

Here's my thought: I too had to have an excision for something that most likely (10-20% chance) would not be an upgrade to cancer. I had ALH, suspicious for LCIS. I did have LCIS, but nothing worse. I'm glad I made sure that there was no invasive cancer lurking. That $2500 would look really cheap compared to your out of pocket costs for more advanced breast cancer by the time it is discovered, if in fact there is some hiding in there with your radial scar.

blueberry89

You make a great point. I got a call back and the surgeon seems to think it's a bad idea not to do it so I kept the appointment. Gave 1000 upfront and will start a payment plan for the rest. Ahhh..