Tired of being brused off

Michelle - change doctors and find someone who will listen and take you seriously.  The doctor you describe sounds very negligent IMO. Best of luck, Joann

HI MILIYA

     Change doctors and change doctors NOW!!!!!  If you have to change doctors from now until Kingdon Come!  My sister (now 62) had a lump (that she could feel) went to her regular family doctor whose 'attitude' was 'oh let's just wait and see'.  At the YMCA running track she stopped the OB-GYN I go to (and she had worked for a few months) and explained the situation (there was NO family history involving women - breast and/or ovarian - NOTHING.  He told her to call his office and tell the 'receptionist that the 2 of them had talked and he was going to 'work her in', she went to him, he felt the mass (an although she was young, small breasted woman.  He called a wonderful surgeon (we've both been to him with 'lumps') that very afternoon; he felt it and although she was 'young' he did not think it was adviseable to take a 'wait and see' attitude; she was IN THE HOSPITAL THE VERY NEXT DAY, for a biopsy.  It had NOT spread outside the breast tissue (had not invaded any of the lympth nodes) but he laid out all the option (lumpectomy all the way to total mastectomy) and told her if he got in there and it was something cancerous - he would remove the breast, if that is what she chose.  She chose to be awaken, told the results, and surgery the next day.  He removed her breast...could not have immediate reconstruction because they had to put in some sort of skin stretcher, but it healed, and me and our other sister asked if we could see the 'mastectomy'.  Since it only involved breast tissue, she looked like a little 8-year-old girl, with no nipple, and a scar running at a 40 degree angle from her chest bone up to her arm pit.  HOWEVER, the plastic surgeon also offered Plan A - Plan ???.  She did not want to have an implant so she chose some sort of rotation flap surgery using her stomach muscles...I tried for weeks to discourage this because at the time (20+ years ago, it was a VERY new procedure) and the attorny I worked for had won a lawsuit where a woman had this surgery; the blood supply to the reconstructed breast, yes that 2 of them, got cut off, he did not seem to be concerned; but later she had to have MAJOR surgery for a double mastectomy and they had to take out all the muscle and graft skin...she was NEVER able to have any type of reconstruction.  Something very similiar happened to my sister...he ended up with about 23 hours of 'plastic surgery', each time he attempted to close the incision the blood supply was cut off.  She ended up with a small implant and a hole in her breast.  Again, sisters wondering if this might happen to them asked to see it, she relunctantly showed us.  Not a 'pretty' sight, but certainly not so gross as to make you want to 'throw up'.  The implant had started leaking (noticeably) so she went to the surgeon recommended by her GYN and he sent her to Plastic Surgeon...scheduled to 'repair, if possible' the breast involved.  In the meantime she had a yearly physical and a mass showed up in the other breast, so they moved the surgery up to this past Monday, depending on the biopsies of the mass and 1/2 the lymph nodes, they were able to do immediate reconstruction - using muscle from her back.  It was 'successful' according to her plastic surgeon.  I have implants which make my breast dense...all 3 lumps have been found by me, I've had biospies/lumpectomies on all three and clear tissue around all clean.  I told the surgeon that if it was cancerouos, I wanted to be awakened, told the diagnosis, and do a double mastectomy (husband in room - doctor sweet as an angel, said 'let's not start building and burning bridges before it becomes necessary, and then, we will talk again about your decision'.  My lumpectomy done the very same Monday.  It was, Thank you GOD - B9.  My Mother has ovarian cancer, but at 87 years old, we along with doctor decided that we should not put her through any treatment.  Given her age, she would probably succumb to a heart attack or stroke before the cancer - just draining abdomen to keep her comfortable.  Two times on the previous Monday my sister was called and told that Mother was 'unresponsive', but we all just pray she can continue to stay in the Assisted Living Facility and die peacefully in her sleep...she apparently has almost done so twice.  BUT AGAIN, CHANGE DOCTORS, DEMAND A SURGICAL BIOPSY...PITCH A TEE-TOTAL TEMPER TANTRUM...YOU HAVE MORE RIGHT TO DO SO THAT I...all I had to do was call GYN, tell him I felt lump about the size of a pea, that my husband had also felt it, and I was in his office immediately.  CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE, DOCTORS!!!!!