I just met my breast surgeon for the first time.

cgifford7

I just met my breast surgeon for the first time. As I suspected, I'm not a candidate for a lumpectomy, so at a minimum I'll be having a single mastectomy. Because one of the spots is extremely close to my nipple I didn't think I'd be able to have nipple sparing, and that was confirmed. I had blood drawn for genetic testing and have referrals to a plastic surgeon, a medical oncologist, and for a MRI. If anything in the genetic testing or MRI results tilt me toward a double mastectomy, I'm OK with that. With the single mastectomy they'll do a sentinel node biopsy. Right now the diagnosis is DCIS, but I know about 20% of DCIS gets upgraded to invasive after surgery, so knowing whether my nodes are clear will give me a level of comfort. The whirlwind begins.

With DCIS I did not expect to meet with a medical oncologist, but I guess for anyone keeping a breast they want to go over options for Tamoxifen?

LivinLife

That's one reason. I met with an oncologist before surgery too. They expected to find invasion b/c my area of DCIS was 3 cm before biopsy with another 3 cm area of something found on MRI, then Grade 3 with comedo necrosis. My Er and Pr were very low - I think 2 and 5%, respectively so I opted out of hormone therapy. No invasion found. My surgeon went on medical leave for 4 months a few days after my surgery so I've continued meeting with the onc and she plans on following me. I'm fine with that.... haven't scheduled with the surgeon again and onc knows I don't plan on that. Onc finds me "an interesting patient" and I also have some hematology issues so that probably helps her justify continuing to see me.... It is unusual - not to be seen to start though to continued being followed when not on hormone therapy and no invasive cancer. Thanks for the update and keep us posted!