Total anxiety over time elapsed waiting till surgery

Trying2staypositive

So I got my surgery date today. It's a little over six weeks away unless I want to do it at a place that I am not very comfortable with (another hospital not a great rep but same surgeons-may help me shorten it a week or so.) My biggest fear is I do have invasive cancer dx already so it is in the tissue at the very least -even if it doesn't look to be in my lymph nodes we all know MRI is not totally conclusive. Totally frustrated because it's been since May since my first mammogram that showed a problem, I was a few months late on screening (not too horrible but still) and I will not be having surgery until almost mid September-But they said they recommend 60 days from diagnosis date no matter how long arriving at diagnosis took. I feel like nobody seems to care that this is been almost 4 months already mentally for me. Even if they say it won't spread that quickly easy for them to say. Nevermind the surgery was scheduled the same day as an unnamed special occasion that I did not want to associate with this hell I'm going through. And the fact that it is storm season where I live and very well things can blow up in my face and surgery could not even happen. Just feeling frustrated and overwhelmed ready to throw in the towel. I can try to go elsewhere but it would take just as long if not longer. I wish that some of these people could just feel the psychological torture this is. Especially as a mom. I feel like I am just a statistic at the end of the day. Everything is statistics it seems

Hopeful82014

I sure understand your frustration. Is there any chance that your surgeon or MO would consider putting you on an aromatase inhibitor or tamoxifen until your surgery? That way you would almost certainly be slowing the cancer (since you’re ER+) and would have the added benefit of getting an idea of how well it works for you. Maybe you could even push the date back a week or so and avoid that special occasion as well.

I know this sounds radical but elsewhere in the world neoadjuvant endocrine therapy is fairly commonly used. I did 7 months letrozole (prescribed by my breast surgeon) prior to surgery and it really knocked the cancer down. For me that’s been a very powerful demonstration of just how effective the drug is for me, which has been a HUGE reinforcement whenever I get fed up with taking it. This approach is becoming more widely used in the US - there was a lot of discussion of it at the SABCS (a major b cancer symposium) last year.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions. In the meantime, hang in there; I think we all sympathize with your very frustrating and worrisome situation and are sending you lots of support.

---