order of appointments - Breast surgeon/genetic testing

Yes. Go ahead and schedule the breast surgeon appointment . There's really no reason to wait. You can talk with them about waiting on results of genetic testing.

I also had genetic testing. Cancer runs rampant in my family tree, mostly breast, colon, uterine, and lung cancers, but also a few pancreatic cancers and leukemias. So, there was STRONG suspicion of gene mutation. They recommended two tests. The first one looks for the BRCA genes and a couple other more common ones. The second tested for about 19 rare gene mutations. When the first test came back negative, we all rejoiced and I had a lumpectomy. And then 3 weeks later the other test results came in--positive for TWO rare genes that cause BC, colon, and all the other cancers in my family.

In the end my tumor was deemed to be more aggressive than usual, so I needed chemo. My MO strongly advised a BMX after chemo. Had I known, and had we all been a little more patient with the wait, I could have avoided the LX and re-excision and gone straight to BMX , thereby avoiding 2 extra surgeries.

Best of luck to you. In my experience with BC, there's a whole lot of hurry up & wait in the process. Let us know how it goes.

I would see the surgeon and get the ball rolling on the second biopsy, the reason being if you don't have a mutation you are really slowing things down at that point because they will certainly want to do the biopsy. Also in case your surgeon has a tight schedule you want to get on the books.

I was told even with genetic testing there are probably more genes that aren't even known yet, so if you come back negative you never really know. I would have done the testing if the insurance would have paid for it but they wouldn't because I had no family history.

Your decision on what kind surgery maybe effected by the results. In my case, because I had 2 tumors and one suspicious area I decided against another biopsy and went right for the mastectomy. If I had the BRCA 1 or 2 I may have done the bilateral not really sure though.

In the end, you'll need all the tests/appts done sometime so the order doesn't matter too much. I saw my breast surgeon first and after she gave me all my options, I decided on the bilateral mastectomy. I never had an MRI since I made the decision to do a bilateral. It was until after my surgery that I did genetic testing and then saw an oncologist. I guess looking back I didn't have all the info before deciding to do a mastectomy but it was just my gut instinct and gave me the most peace of mind. When you're first diagnosed, it's all so confusing. Plus there's different types of cancers and I learned DCIS is a lot different than the invasive kinds. Knowing what I know now, I would not have changed my treatment. Best of luck to you and I'm sorry you have to be here. It really sucks but as someone told me right after I got diagnosed, DCIS won't kill you but the next few months will just suck. For me, I'd say it was about 3 bad months.

I got my genetic testing results in about a week. The first person I met with was the breast surgeon. I’d say go see whoever you can get in with first