MRI results

[cldubsokind]

Hello all,
I am alittle nervous about surgery. I will be having a simple mastectomy to the right breast with a sentinal node disection as well. My MRI results came in to my surgeon the very next morning instead of it taking 5 days (which is what they said in the MRI unit) and he called me right away and said he had canceled my appointment with the oncologist and wanted to see me first thing in the morning! I was kinda freaking as I didn't know if that was bad or good.
So I went to his office first thing in the morning and when I got there the secretary was like hmm I don't see that he has scheduled anything with you today. They asked if I was sure I was to meet him at this office instead of overat the breast health center and I said "Yup he said here." Just then they received a phone call from someone saying that I was meeting him there and he would be on his way up to the office to see me in between surgerys. I was like hmm in between surgerys well this must be urgent then.
He came in brang me in to the room and said he received the MRI results and it shows a rather large mass that spreads within two quadrents and a simple mastecomy would be my best option. Also that from the MRI my lymph nodes looked normal. No signs of swelling or abnormality which is a good sign, but we would still do the disection and send that to pathology to be certain. I go next Friday and I will be out of the hospital the next morning he said. I am, alittle nervous. I have never been put under before and don't know what to expect.
We are hoping for reconstruction at the same time as surgery, but the plastic surgeon that my surgeon normally worked with just moved away and he does not know anything about the only guy left that works with the hospital. My surgeon is going to call him first thing on Monday and try to speak with him or setup to meet him and see what he suggests for reconstruction for me. The surgeon is also going to speak to other surgeons that have used this new guy and see what they have to say about his results. If my surgeon is not happy with this guy then we are going to wait for the reconstruction and he is going to send me to "The best guy in the state" as he refered to him as. I told him whatever he thinks is best.
My surgeon is young about 32-35 I would say and he did mention to me several times that his wife is 32 and he would want nothing but the best for her if she was in the same situation as I am in. He wants the best possible care I can get just as he would want for his young wife and he would expect nothing less for his patients as well. This guy is great makes you feel so at ease with everything.
I am really hoping for instant reconstruction, but will take whatever just cut this BEAST out!
I will meet with the Oncologist about a week after surgery and we will figure out treatment once my staging information is complete.
Two more weeks of waiting for the staging information. I really wanted to go with neoadjuvant treatment, but the surgeon thinks its best to try to remove it asap before it hits the lymph nodes as well as the fact that it is grown larger quickly and is getting closer to the skin/chest wall. He thinks its best to remove it now just in case it wouldn't respond to the Chemo treatments and could get worse quick.
Wish me luck  Thank you for all the information everyone haas been so generous to share with me.
   What do you think about the MRI showing no signs of cancer in lymph nodes? How accurate is an MRI at detecting this?
Tanya

[SueYoung55]

I'm so glad my post didn't upset you but gave you some things to think about. Your mass was like mine at 10 cm. For me, I had to have chemo first to try and reduce the mass so they could do a mastectomy and close me up properly. So, I started chemo in January 08, had 4 rounds, had my mastectomy (took half of my chest muscle to get clear margins) in March 08 and then had 4 more chemo treatments. I had radiation in August & Sept of 08 including I believe 7 boosts. I was not a candidate for expanders and implants.

So, this year in May I flew to New Orleans to Dr. Dellacroce to get delayed DIEP perforator flap reconstruction and a mastectomy on my remaining breast with immediate reconstruction which had I known about it BEFORE my mastectomy, I could have had it done prior to my treatment and radiation would not have affected it any more than if it had been breast tissue. It's a case of "if I knew then what I know now" :)

I'm thrilled you trust your surgeon. I did too. Rock on Sister and keep in mind, cancer is scary but the treatment is do-able!

And thank you for not being upset that I gave you things to think about. The sad thing about cancer is we learn as we go unless someone says... hey, think about this! We don't yet know what to ask about as we don't yet know, see what I mean?

Best wishes!

[cldubsokind]

Hello once again,
     I do have a lot of information on my breast cancer just forgot to mention it in my post oops ;)
I have a rather large mass estimating at about 10 cm in my right breast. It is within two quadrents that is why we are going with simple mastecomy. Here is the information I do have as of now:
  diagnostic mammo-done
steriotactic biopsy- done shows grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma
have seen surgeon 4 times now. He specializes in breast health and sugery. I feel comfortable with him.
He scheduled me for a breast MRI so we could get a more detailed look at the size of the tumor as well as the nodes.
    I have been seeing my doctors since July 31st and we have made sure that we get the information we needed before scheduling surgery.
  My surgeon has spoken to the oncologist a couple times about my case. As far as the reconstruction he plans to talk it over with the oncologist as well as the plastic surgeon to go with the best plan possible as well as the best plastic surgeon possible.
  I have thought about removing the other breast as well, but have not discussed this with my doctor.
  I will certainly ask my surgeon about the reconstruction if I will have to do radiation.
  We are not sure on the staging yet as that should come about a week after my surgery.
I have read your post carefully and there is definately somethings I will mention to my doctor when I meet him again early in the week before surgery. Thank you

   Thank you Bluebutterfly for being a friend and I will try to keep ytou up to date on how everything turns out and the future plan.
   I will be discussing a few things with my docs Monday morning.  

[bluebutterfly2222]

Hi Tanya!

As someome who has been following all your posts over the past couple of weeks, I am SO glad that you now have a time-frame, a plan, and a WONDERFUL-sounding doctor to implement it!

♥,
bluebutterfly

[SueYoung55]

Tanya, I'm so sorry.

Please understand that my post is meant to be supportive and informative though I worry that I come off too strong. That is not my objective.

You don't mention any of the particulars of your cancer. What type and stage etc. I can't believe he did all of this talking with no definition! Rather large? That could be 2 cm or like mine, 10 cm. I have lots of questions  and so should you at this point. I absolutely would not have surgery until I had some answers. I would not have reconstruction without some answers. You have diagnosis of a rather large mass but nothing further that I can get a grasp on.

You have time to get your answers.
You have time to get your answers.
Again, you have time to get your answers. :)

Here are my questions. What type of cancer do I have? Is it aggressive and if so, how aggessive? You had an MRI, did you have a biopsy? Those results do take 5 to 7 days and those results tell you what you're dealing with. DCIS? Lobular? Invasive? Hormone positive? Negative? HER2 Positive? Negative? I would ABSOLUTELY meet with a hematology oncologist, and a radiology oncologist, and a plastic surgeon or two and another breast surgeon for a second opinion. You have TIME to do these meetings before you make decisions that effect the rest of your life.

First and foremmost, your surgeon only specializes in surgery. He knows nothing of oncology other than what he's heard or saw while on rotation and then the after effects of chemo patients. He knows nothing of radiology and if you even need it. So he is telling you to set up reconstruction with a plastic surgeon and yet if you're having radiation, you don't want a 90% failure rate for expanders and implants. If you're having radiation, you'll want tissue transfer like DIEP that leaves your muscles in tact but uses fat and skin from other parts of the body and only moves the blood supply, NOT MUSCLE.... (ps...your plastic surgeon won't offer this to you because he's probably not a microsurgeon and they are the ones who do DIEP.) For tissue transfer he'll offer TRAM or LAT FLAP which moves muscles which isn't necessary. And then there is the issue of the "other" breast. Do you want to keep it? Some cancers tend to go bi-lateral like mine. If you're going to choose reconstruction, why not have ALL the breast tissue they can remove, removed... and have reconstructions that match perfectly all at once? You should have lots to think about now! I am not slamming your doctor. I just want you to see that they only know their part of it which is NORMAL but you're making decisions based on only HIS part of it. Get the whole picture, PLEASE please please get the whole picture.

I am so hopeful for you but I hate to see you do the panic shuffle in a hurry to get it off, get it all off without really having ALL of the knowledge at your fingertips prior to the decisions. It happened to me and to almost every other woman with breast cancer, don't let it happen to you.

MRI's tend to be very sensitive, some people say ultra sensitive. Where my invasive lobular carcinoma did not show up on any mammogram, it showed up 10 cm on an MRI.
I also understand there are a lot of false positives with the MRI. That said, it saved my life (fingers crossed and God is listening :)~ )

Best wishes in your future. Feel free to message me if you want real time information since I just went through all of this myself.