Just got the call - DCIS

Hi Amy - thanks for answering, and I'm sorry you're dealing with this too, and on top of lymphoma! If it's of any comfort, a good friend of mine went through lymphoma treatment a couple of years ago and is doing great. I'm doing OK too. I saw the surgeon a few days after the diagnosis, and she said I should have an MRI because of my dense tissue. Waiting for those results was really hard. Up until then, I didn't think there could be anything more stressful than waiting to find out if you have cancer. This time I already knew I DID have cancer and that that we were looking to see just how much I might have hiding in that dense tissue, that years of mammograms hadn't been able to see. I was so thankful when the only thing that showed up on the MRI was the thing that had already been biopsied. I had my lumpectomy earlier this week and am now just waiting for the final report to find out whether the margins were good and also whether the original DCIS biopsy was accurate. If there was invasive cancer mixed in there, it seems unlikely that every single one of the biopsy samples missed it, but I won't breathe easily until I know the final results. After that, on to find out about radiation and/or hormone treatments.

Robin, thanks for sharing your success story! This is definitely the most anxiety-filled experience I've ever been through, and my doctor prescribed a sleep aid, which has helped. You're so right about feeling better once treatment has started. While there are still those unknowns about margins/second surgery, final pathology, radiation, tamoxifen, and perhaps other factors, I do feel much better knowing that it is out of my body. Today I got my first look at the incision and the dent, and it's not nearly as bad as I had feared. That helped my anxiety level too, as I'd come home with this absolutely huge pillowy bandage that covered the entire top half of my breast and I was imagining all sorts of things under there.