Help me

I was recently diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. I don't know what stage, or grade. I just know I have a mass in my left breast that measures 3cm (not .03 or .3) and several other masses have recently been found in my left.

I don't want to be butchered but I don't know what questions to ask and what options are available. I called Susan G.Komen for help, but they forwarded me to Cancer Treatment Centers Psych Support.

I don't know what questions to ask. I just know that I don't want my breast lopped off and sutured up like Frankenstein.  

Somebody help me please!!!

[katarina777]

it is indeed scary when you lack information, and we all do in the beginning pretty much. I didn't know anything!

I also know how hard it is to absorb at this point what you are being told as it is often pretty meaningless informatiuon the doctor/surgeon gives you when you don't know what anything means?

So ley me just respond to a couple of points you make. (There is very little to tell you specifically without much information, and you don't provide much)

it sounds like you have a large tumor in your left breast that measures 3 cm and is invasive ductal. Now this alone would tell us that the lesion is no stage 1, or a very beginning stage.
You will most likely do need surgery.

You say you have a bunch of other tumors also in the other breast, and it is very unusual if those would turn out to be cancer as well. Breast cancer is usually found only on one side when first diagnosed, although there are exceptions.

In your case, these may be fibroadenomas, or other benign findings, but I don't know.

From my experience the surgery did not remind me of Frankenstein's work. It was quite painless and the scar looked very decent. But I was also not that attached to my breasts to begin with, was in my late 40's, and I had a great surgeon.

I also had chemotherapy and radiation.

It sounds like you need to have another conversation with your doctor and his nurse, and it really helped me to take along another person for a second pair of ears and who asked question.

Hang in there, OK? KATRIN

[Kemal]

Hi,

You won't know if teh cancer had gone to any nodes unless you have surgery.  If you want to find out more information quickly I suggets you demand a full contrasting CT Scan.

Kemal

[katarina777]

it is indeed scary when you lack information, and we all do in the beginning pretty much. I didn't know anything!

I also know how hard it is to absorb at this point what you are being told as it is often pretty meaningless informatiuon the doctor/surgeon gives you when you don't know what anything means?

So ley me just respond to a couple of points you make. (There is very little to tell you specifically without much information, and you don't provide much)

it sounds like you have a large tumor in your left breast that measures 3 cm and is invasive ductal. Now this alone would tell us that the lesion is no stage 1, or a very beginning stage.
You will most likely do need surgery.

You say you have a bunch of other tumors also in the other breast, and it is very unusual if those would turn out to be cancer as well. Breast cancer is usually found only on one side when first diagnosed, although there are exceptions.

In your case, these may be fibroadenomas, or other benign findings, but I don't know.

From my experience the surgery did not remind me of Frankenstein's work. It was quite painless and the scar looked very decent. But I was also not that attached to my breasts to begin with, was in my late 40's, and I had a great surgeon.

I also had chemotherapy and radiation.

It sounds like you need to have another conversation with your doctor and his nurse, and it really helped me to take along another person for a second pair of ears and who asked question.

Hang in there, OK? KATRIN

[bluebutterfly2222]

I understand that you are worried, but I would like to request that you show some sensitivity to the fact that this is a community where many members are facing, or have had, various types of breast surgery, including mastectomy, with or without reconstruction...   (Comments about being "butchered," breast "lopped off," and references to Frankenstein are not what I would call sensitive to the feelings of others...) Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

In regard to your options, that will depend to a great extent on the details of your particular case. Since you have already received a dx of IDC, you are obviously under the care of a doctor or doctors. Please discuss your questions--and your fears--with a breast surgeon, to learn what choices are available to you, specifically.

After you have obtained that information,  feel free to come back and discuss them with members of this community.

Best wishes...

[bellephoenix]

@bluebutterfly2222

No one has the authority "to request  that you show some sensitivity" to a person who is expressing their thoughts and feelings that has been diagnosed with cancer. That's like telling someone who has just broken their arm in 2 places  and no pain meds to be quite because the person on the other side of the curtain has a headache!!  (and that actually happened last week)

To those individuals who wish to cookie cut the "individuals" of this site:  PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO POSTS YOU DO NOT APPROVE OF.

@Kemal and Katarina777,

I had an MRI in which I was injected with a die and I am scheduled for an MRI Guided Biopsy on Monday night.

But WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS I NEED TO ASK?

[katarina777]

I feel a need to say something of importance, even if I am a little concerned about doing soat thwe same time as I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings.

In most instances, I agree with other volunteers who have been here for a while, and who are smart and kind, and caring and wise when they answer posts.

Sometimes, our opinions differ from each other, and  in that case  I feel that most often the poster benefits from the variety of input. They can either leave it, or take it.

So I want to talk about this thing about 'sensitivity' and whether we have such an obligation as either posters or answerers.

In the matter of 'sensitivity' that came up before,  I am 100 % with bellephoenix and that she has absolutely no responsibility to edit her comment, and true feelings/ anxieties about breast surgery just in order to avoid possibly harming  some reader by putting such frightening idea as Frankenstein in  the head of these poor vulnerable bc women? and causing them to become anxious and lead toi their cancelling their own surgery. (or contaminating 'breast cancer' and it's 'treatment' with a negative influence for those who will be facing mastectomies/lumpectomies, or already been through this.)

Bellephoenix's feelings and fears are about herself and her state of mind, and what she needs to vent, and the 'picture' she lays before us is one connected with considerable anxiety. it is not her duty, or even wanted as far as I am concerned, for her to be focused on what anyone may think and feels.

Breast cancer is real, and so are the treatments, and they are scary and normal as all other feelings are also about this, and shared by many of us. the anxiey and fear and the pain and the wellbeing and gratitude, etc, we feel is just as real.

If we as volunteers see our job as wanting to protect every breast cancer patient from harm, then that is our need really only. (it's like telling someone they cannot talk about them feeling suicidal as a reader may act upon this urge after hearing the word suicidal)

I also feel the need to voice my own thoughts as I am aware that by saying 'nothing' this may be the most hurtful 'inaction' to bellephoenix and much worse than anything that can possibly be said.

Thanks for listening, and I welcome  all of you to say what's on your mind, and about you and your life  (and this also goes for bluebutterfly 2222's telling her truth, and which was on her mind with enough force that she wanted to express her concern)

This is all about leqarning not only from what is right, but also from mistakes, and with the latter one having much more value than we usually give such credit for.

Thank you all for listening,

Katrin