multi focal DCIS? ugh what to do??

sounds like me, I had 3 lumpies to get the clear margins for my DCIS

but it worked, and 5 years later after rads and the lovely aromasin, I am still clear so get the best surgeon in your area and ask them what they think or can do

mastectomy is a tough road and I wanted to try the lumpie route first and so far so good

The tamox hurt my joints and bones something awful. I am a very active person and after about 4 months on it, I couldn't walk up a flight of stair and found myself using the elevators at work all the time - it was totally getting in the way of my running, biking etc.  Plus, my thigh bones would just throb and ache. That was weird.  Plus, I found myself being very weepy while on that drug.  However, LOADS of people don't have issues with it and as a matter of fact, I have issues with taking most drugs anyway.

My doc didn't suggest lumpectomy since it was so dispersed.

Hi ealga,

I'm not in Crazy Town at all.  I suspect it'll be benign.  I'm more concerned that they are overreaching for a small amount of calcs that are faint (although loosely-clustered).  They'll go in with the core biopsy, which frankly I found more traumatic to the breast than the three surgeries, and may not even find the calcs.  Then, they'd have to decide if they should do a surgical excision, yada yada yada.  So, it's not the pathology I'm worried about, its the procedural aspects of it.  Anyway, welcome to the club of super-surveillance.  Once you have a diagnosis, there could be lots of this. At least I know that I'm being treated at one of the "best", so I have to trust their judgment on this one.

Ealga, I had a multifocal area of DCIS, grade 2, that after further testing also had started to turn into invasive. Because they showed me on my MRI film how misshapen the DCIS was and how hard it was going to be to get clear margins I opted for BMX (cancer was only in my right side). After surgery I had not only 4 cm of DCIS but 9 mm IDC at one end and another 1 mm at the other so I was so glad to have done BMX. I know everyone is different but I was one of the lucky ones. I went back to work in 2 weeks (desk job), was driving after 2 weeks and even went to an amusement park one month post surgery and got on any ride I wanted to. Just 2 months post surgery and I am planning to play baseball with my family next week. I don't regret my BMX at all. Because my cancer was caught so early no chemo, no rads and Tamoxifen risks outweigh my benefit so i am "done". Oh, and the silver linings are (1) reconstruction looks great thus far and (2) I never have to wear a bra ever again, which has resulted in (3) my chronic back pain has reduced by about 75%. I know with cancer nothing is certain but I have no regrets. Just wanted to give you another point of view in case you end up having to do BMX. On these boards less people with positive experiences tend to post which I can think of many reasons for this but I decided to because for anyone who has to end up having a BMX I want them to know its not a walk in the park but it is doable and many of us who have BMX have no regrets.

I also had multi-focal DCIS and my first lumpectomy had unclear margins. I had an MRI that showed the DCIS was more extensive than originally thought. I tried again with a second lumpectomy but it was also unsuccessful. The MRI indicated suspicious shots on the right side, so I opted for BMX. The final pathology report proved that those spots on the right were false-positives, but I'm glad to not have to monitor it every 6 months and move on. BMX is not so bad. While the odds of survival are the same, the recurrence risk is very different. I was shocked to read that the recurrence risk was as high as 22% after lump/rads (but after MX ~1%). Also, grade 3 DCIS had a higher chance of becoming invasive. I highly agree that an MRI would be useful right now. My BS didn't think it would be, but he changed his mind. Best wishes on finding your treatment path. This is a trying time! It does get better!