Say what?

Options
rn4babies
rn4babies Member Posts: 409
edited June 2014 in DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ)

I had my lumpectomy yesterday. After my needle locator was placed (which was quite difficult), the radiology tech wheeled me back to the pre-op area. Before she left she said to me "This is just DCIS right? Oh, that's nothing. Did the doctor tell you they are going to re-classify this as a non-cancer anyway?" And at that she walked away.  Funny, as she was saying that, I had an IV running, DVT's on my legs, butt naked with a needle in my breast waiting to go to the OR but it's nothing??? I have to completely rearrange my work schedule for 6 weeks of radation and take a stupid pill for 5 years. But It's nothing? Granted, I do consider myself extremely lucky. It was caught early and I know it is nothing compare to what most women have to go through with their diagnosis. It still has put a cramp in MY life for now. I didn't choose my course of treatment. My doctor did. I feel like a fraud. Like DCIS doesn't count. Maybe she was trying to make me feel better but she's the same one that said a few years ago that my mom's BS (top notch) didn't know what he was talking about when he said my sisters and I were at higher risk because my mom and her sister had BC. My 37 year old sister got it 2 years later (BMX for DCIS, by the way) and now me 3 years after her. I know this is long. I'm just frustrated and venting. 

· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • Deirdre1
    Deirdre1 Member Posts: 1,461
    edited September 2011

    Hi - well they have not officially changed the name and that concern has been ongoing for many years now.. It is cancer - it looks, lives and acts like cancer BUT it is not invasive.. so the problem is that no one in the medical profession can tell you what triggers the DCIS to now become invasive OR is DCIS a pre-cursor to the potential of invasive cancer... I totally understand your frustration.. many of us are frustrated by the comments that the name might be changed BECAUSE too many women were approaching treatment too aggressively.. well in MY opinion it is the doc's who need a better understanding of what DCIS is and stop pushing women into agressive action.. My father died from bc so when the doc's saw that I had DCIS THEY panicked and insisted that I consider a bi-lateral mastectomy or at the very least a single mastectomy on the involved breast.. I had gone to those appointments understanding the DCIS was pre-invasive and had every intent of doing "watch and wait" - none of the doc's in my town wanted me to do that so after awhile I became "afraid" for my life not because of my own research (which would have allowed me to to "watch and wait" (the DCIS would have been removed by surgery) but because of the doc's (4 doc's) lack of information! 

    OK so after my initial anger I started to look at this more logically.. when I was younger I always stated that if my BRCA came back positive I would consider having a bi-lateral mast... well my BRCA was negative BUT I came back with something even more telling than the potential of my genes to betray me.. I was DCIS Grade 2/3 and that IMO was MORE of a warning that I could have the potential of cancer.. and that allows me to accept the bi-lateral that my doc's pushed me into...

    I totally understand your frustration and YOU have been through a great deal - the way to get through the rest is to understand that you had a greater potential of having invasive cancer and now you have taken care of that!  You went through a major even and if you see that medical professional again suggest he/she change the way he/she speaks to DCIS patients - but a medical professional who is not careful with a DCIS patient won't be much good with an individual with invasive cancer either.. She/he is just plain ignorant!!!  Good luck and I am really sorry you have to be here at all!!!  Take good care, Deirdre

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • CoolBreeze
    CoolBreeze Member Posts: 4,668
    edited September 2011

    Hi ladies,

    I saw this in active topics and couldn't help but respond and be mad for you.  The problem is not what the name of the diagnosis is or may be.  The problem is a (supposed) medical professional felt like she needed to denigrate what somebody was going through.  Nothing about your treatment is easy or simple, and it affects you physically and emotionally.    Whether it is going to kill you or not is beside the point for that day.   You were a woman in vulnerable place, and going through a very unpleasant experience, and that is when this tech decided to assert her "knowledge," essentially implying you that you were not allowed to be upset.

    That is called passive aggressive.  If you called her on it, she would say "Oh, I was just trying to make her feel better" but I'm guessing that is not the truth.

    Since you've said you have dealt with this woman before, I would do my best to avoid her from now on.  When you make appointments, you are allowed to say, "I don't want XX tech."   She is a tech, not a nurse, doctor, PA or anything else, and she should stick to her job.  If she can't be caring over a persons suffering, than she should say nothing at  all. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • peggy_j
    peggy_j Member Posts: 1,700
    edited September 2011

    Wow, that's a horribly insensitive comment and she couldn't have said it at a worse time. I'm sorry that happened to you. BTW, if you haven't discovered it yet, there's a "bonfire of the goddesses" thread down below (under Moving Beyond Cancer). Maybe you can throw that experience (and the tech?) into the bonfire? take care.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Hindsfeet
    Hindsfeet Member Posts: 2,456
    edited September 2011

    I'm sorry as well that she made little of your dcis dx. Any type of cancer is serious. Plus, until you get your final pathology report you don't know for sure what's all in the breast. And all of us dx have surgery, which in itself a serious event. You would think nurses knowing what you are about to face, plus possible treatment would have a better bedside manner.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • cycle-path
    cycle-path Member Posts: 1,502
    edited September 2011

    Well said, Coolbreeze. And whether someone officially classifies DCIS as cancer or not, the point is that it's something that ought to be treated. Telling a person "it's not cancer" could cause them to leave it alone.

    I've had colon polyps that were completely non-cancerous, but they needed to be removed because of what's likely to happen with them at a later date. Telling someone that "it's not cancer" is just so unhelpful. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • mom2one
    mom2one Member Posts: 138
    edited September 2011

    Saw your post and I just had to respond.  I too was diagnosed with what the doctors called "baby" cancer.  Well after two failed lumpectomies, with wire placement, and a bilateral BMX which had me in the hospital for a week due to pain complications and 5 months of TEs and a surgery scheduled for Tuesday for implant exchange, this is stage 1 cancer.  I will say I do consider myself to be VERY LUCKY that it was caught when it was.  I know I have not gone through nearly as much as a lot of women.  However, I do tell people I had breast cancer.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • agada
    agada Member Posts: 452
    edited September 2011

    I am angry for you as well.  The Tech should NEVER have made a comment to you in the first place...if anyone said that already sorry for the repeat.  As I have said before.  If its not cancer why did I go through bilateral mastectomies?  Not for the fun of it.  I have a very high rate of breast cancer in my family and I now have DCIS. Not every cancer has to be BRCA Pos to be a cancer.  Perhaps the cancer in the other women in my family started as DCIS but were all caught at late stages, if it spread over the years?   Not much research is really being done in this country regarding DCIS and what it "really" is so how can they say its not a cancer?  Other countries treat it like one.  GRRRRR......

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • iLUV2knit
    iLUV2knit Member Posts: 157
    edited September 2011

    oh geez....this is exactly how I am feeling also!!  Like DCIS isn't bad enough to be taken seriously?? 

    It is MY body, it is happening to ME, therefore, I am taking it seriously. I would have said that to that unprofessional tech and also followed it up with a letter to the hospital!! 

    Wonder how she would feel if SHE were the one diagnosed with DCIS-- whatever grade, whatever stage, whatever type.  Cancer cells are cancer cells and DCIS from what I read can be very sneaky. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • BlairK
    BlairK Member Posts: 399
    edited September 2011

    Dear rn4babies - I read your post.  I posted for my wife who just received a diagnosis of DCIS.  Unfortunately, some but not all medical and surgical personnel need sensitivity training.  I was in the hospital for open chest surgery in 2003.  After the surgery I had a clot in my lungs that could have killed me.  The surgeon and some of the nurses were a little insensitive.  I still remember it 8 years later.  So I can relate and sympathize with your reaction to an insensitive medical and surgical personnel.  Thankfully most of them are not like that.  I hope you are doing well now.  You should take the trouble to update your post to let the community know how you are doing - hopefully better.  It helps everybody to see posts from people indicating that they are doing better.  Good luck and I will keep posting on the status of my wife in my own thread.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories