Just diagnosed and terrified

It is normal to be afraid, all of us were. Don't forget there are millions of us doing well, getting back to normal. You will be fine.

If there is something I would recommend at this stage is to repeat the pathology. I went for second opinion at a large cancer center, they did pathology on new slides, and the original one was wrong. I went for the third pathology which confirmed the second opinion. In my case, the wrong biopsy result would have put me for 10 years on unnecessary treatment. And I have heard stories of women going through the whole cancer thing, to find out after years, when the pathology was redone for whatever reasons, that it wasn't't cancer.

Here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/avoiding-breast-cancer-mistakes-222952%3famp=1

or here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/breast-biopsies-often-get-it-wrong/

@ladyc2020

It is perfectly normal to be afraid, there are so many what ifs and questions and things floating through your mind. Once you meet with your dr and find out details, it all gets easier. Breast cancer is not a death sentence, modern medicine is amazing...you will get through this, one step at a time! Praying your meeting with your dr goes well!

Lady sending you warm hugs. These first few steps are truly the hardest. Once you have all the information and a treatment plan, things do settle down a bit and you feel better knowing that you are going to work fighting the disease.

In my case I had chemo before surgery and pcr, so nothing was found at surgery despite the 3 or 4 tumors plus the positive node I started with. I think going for a second opinion on the pathology report at the beginning is highly beneficial.

In my case, I sent for a second opinion immediately after I received the biopsy results. Not knowing much, I used John Hopkins services. They were cheap, $200 to look at the original slides (same used as in the original diagnosis) and confirmed the diagnosis.

However, then I went for a second opinion on treatment at Dana Farber in Boston. My original pathology report was 40% progesterone, which put me in the category to receive tamoxifen as per my local doctor recommendation. However the doctor at Dana Farber wanted the hospital to do its own pathological analysis. So they asked my hospital to prepare new slides for each tumor and to send them to Dana Farber. The results came back as less than 1% of any hormone.

Finally, at this point I contacted an independent pathologist and asked for the fourth pathological report. This was done on new slides, prepared again by my local hospital, from the same tissue collected at biopsy. The fourth diagnosis confirmed the one found at Dana Farber.

It is not easy to be a pathologist and look at slides under microscope all day long. We all make mistakes, I would not expect these people to be perfect in their job.

Ladyc, get a copy of the pathology report from the biopsy. There will be more information in there. ER status. PR status. Grade. HER2 status. And from the imaging, there should be an estimate of the size. This is important information to have before surgery.

Was it the surgeon that you saw today? Depending on the diagnosis details, it may be appropriate to see a Medical Oncologist (MO) prior to surgery - sometimes this is important and sometimes patients don't see the MO until after surgery. With some diagnoses, chemo is done prior to surgery, and this is managed by the MO - this is why the diagnosis details are important.

Were the surgical options discussed? Based on the estimated size, is a lumpectomy feasible? After a lumpectomy, radiation is standard of care. Or is a mastectomy (MX) recommended? Radiation may or may not be recommended after a MX - it depends on several factors that usually aren't known until after surgery. Even if a lumpectomy + rads is recommended, you could choose a MX if you prefer.

These are all things that need to be discussed prior to surgery.

If it was super bad it's likely that chemo would be planned before surgery.

The information I mentioned is standard information in a biopsy pathology report. Get the report. It's your right to have it. Trust me, there has to be more information in the report. I've been hanging around here for a long time. I have never heard of a biopsy report that says "invasive ductal carcinoma" and nothing more.

And remember that this is about you. You get to make the decisions. Your doctors inform, advise and recommend. You decide. Don't be rushed into surgery without knowing more and making your own decisions about what you want to do. This is too important to be rushed and to make decisions without having all the information.

Ladyc20, do you have an online patient portal? Your biopsy results (and any other tests you've had done) should be available there. If your doctor is keeping information from you, get a new doctor!

You should look up the surgeon and see what kind of reviews he has. Must be specialized in breast surgery, of course. Also, I would highly recommend to talk to an oncologist before any surgery. They know the best the treatment protocols in case your surgeon is not very familiar with the process.

The report with the type of cancer it came several days later in my case, but I had all information by the time I talked to the surgeon. He was the one who sent me to the oncologist, telling me that, based on cancer pathology he could not operate, and I needed chemo first.

When I first heard the diagnosis, I looked up all breast surgeons in my area and I chose him after a careful evaluation. He is trained as both breast and plastic surgeon, and he was the only one to do nipple sparing mastectomy, which I initially considered, but later adandoned the idea.

He did a great job -I had a double mastectomy and wanted a nice closing, because I did not want reconstruction. I was worried because my surgery was the last one that day, after several others. But he did a great job with excellent aesthetic results in my opinion.

loveyou64, sorry you find yourself in this position. It's scary but it gets better. Where are your metastases? You can get more info and support on specific threads in the stage 4 forum. https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/8