Mammogram Results

[laurainnaples]

Went for my first mammogram yesterday morning - ....  I got a phone call just 5 hours later from the GYN telling me I had microcalcifications, assymetry and a density mass (?)  and needed to reschedule for another set of pictures on the left breast (which I did) but they can't get me in until Nov. 6th.  There is no family history......should I be concerned since they found 3 things?

[SueYoung55]

Sorry my friend, I didn't mean to get on a soapbox in your post. I don't blame you one second for being scared, that's a very normal reaction. Thank goodness you have your testing pretty soon.

If you've got dense breasts, always try and get your mammograms scheduled at a facility that offers digital mammograms. Dense breasts show up white on a mammogram and so does cancer, similar to trying to find a polar bear in a blizzard.

Please let us know how this works out for you.

Best wishes and try not to worry. :)

[SueYoung55]

Hi Allison,

I really thought to NOT reply to your comment but there are some things I'd like you to consider.

You're posting that chemo and rads have side effects in a breast cancer community where so many of us have personal knowledge of cancer, some still in treatment. Take a care to not hurt your sisters and brothers that have decided to go with the standard of care for breast cancer which is chemo and rads.  

In your position having DCIS and not cancer, it's easy to spout off about what you will and will not do. (Personally I think DCIS is cancer but the experts have changed their mind on that one).

I agree with you that the treatments are harsh and I know from personal experience. But when your cancerous mass is your ENTIRE breast and it's in your nodes, you go for all of it and pray to God that you survive, both the disease and the treatment.

I am funny about Doctors and if you go back and read my posts you will see that I am very opinionated about lousy care, good care and spectacular care. Because a surgeon offers an option doesn't make them knife happy, it makes them proactive, even if you didn't like what was offered. Mayo may give you the same option! I know a lot of women who went to Mayo here in Jacksonville that were given lumpectomies.

I personally don't like lumpectomies and would again have double mastectomies but..... that's not everyone else's choice. I'm just an all or nothing kind of lady. Get them off and give me better odds of not getting it back!

I did have DIEP perforator flap reconstruction, delayed by a year & a half ... and though I have fabulous breasts now, there are also 8 inch long scars since I couldn't have immediate reconstruction. I had the worlds best microsurgeons re-create what was taken from me by cancer. I'd do it again if I had to.

I was at my oncologist's office today and he reminded me that even though I had a radical mastectomy on the right side and a modified radical on the left side, there is STILL BREAST TISSUE. Please don't think that you will be tissue free because it's impossible! I get an MRI every year and a good doctor can read that and tell you just how much breast tissue is left and keep an eye on it. I also learned that the breast center at my hospital does have the new PET scan for BREASTS. He told me that it picks up small cancers unlike a normal PET scan. I may choose to do that next year.

I hate going back to the oncologist. I do. I sat between two beautiful ladies that were just as bald as a babies behind. Been there, done that and looked good too! LOL Anyways, both had metastatic cancer, one breast cancer and one liver and colon, both fighting for their life. Both worried about their children and the one lady about her grandchild too. When I mentioned it to my doctor he asked, does that bother you? I said no, absolutely not, I will advocate and support any women fighting this beast. But I did admit that it always makes me wonder......... is that me, am I next?

Best wishes with your testing and treatment. Whatever choices you make, don't have regrets. I know I don't.  :)

[zouzi]

I agree with you completely Bluebutterfly! I couldn't have expressed myself better than  this.Thank you.

[bluebutterfly2222]

Unfortunately, mastectomy does not guarantee that  you  "never have to worry about dying from breast cancer," as AllisonU claimed, since every bit of breast tissue cannot be removed. Also, there is no "test after lumpectomy that can prove(or disprove) whether abnormal cells have spread."  There can be microinvasions that cannot be detected.

This information is not to scare you, but a reminder to everyone to make  any treatment decisions at least taking into account information from experts who have dedicated their adult lives to researching and/or treadtng this difficult disease, rather than being swayed by opinions expressed over the Internet.

I hope your follow-up tests go well and you don't  have to worry about ANY of this, but I didn't want to let this incorrect information stand.

Best wishes...

[laurainnaples]

Allison - I misread your post in thinking you had already done the reconstruction I'm sorry. I wish you God Speed and am sure you will make the right decision for yourself. Good Luck and let me know how things turn out..... btw - my 1rst cousin just had a mastectomy with reconstruction and she seems to be doing well now.  Take care!

[laurainnaples]

I'm so sorry that you went through all of that...but you seem to have made the right decision for yourself and that the reconstruction came out so well and your happy with it is fantastic!  As I am still in the discovery process and don't want to jump ahead of myself, I will keep your thoughts in mind however. God Speed!

[AllisonU]

I was diagnosed with DCIS 2 weeks ago; a very small cluster of microcalcifications.  The core needle biopsy done a week ago was horribly painful and there is still soreness and a lump where the needle went in.  It was done at the hospital.  I am going to the Mayo Clinic tomorrow for a 2nd opinion about the course of treatment.  The 1st surgeon wanted me "as a patient for life" and was suggesting that the normal treatment for this is a lumpectomy (bigger than the size of a golf ball for an area less than 1/2" in diameter?), 7 weeks of radiation, and the estrogren blocker (chemo drug) tamoxifen.  there is NO way that anybody is going to poison my body with these toxins unless they determine after the lumpectomy that these abnormal cells have spread.  I'm only 48, not quite in menopause yet and I refuse to be a medical guinea pig. I am extremely healthy, my parents are in their late 80's and no one in my family has ever had cancer. Radiation and tamoxifen, in my opinion, are toxic.  R will ultimately cause cancer and T will screw up your endocrine system and may cause endometrial cancer.  These are dangerous treatments and may certainly cause even more problems than they solve.  Get a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion from recognized leaders in breast cancer treatment.  Do not take the word of the first knife happy surgeon that you meet....and consider a mascetomy (or double) with reconstruction, as I will, if the biopsy shows invasion.  To be rid of the breat tissue completely is to never worry about dying from breast cancer.  The reconstruction that is done now  is beautiful.  Good luck, God Bless you!

[laurainnaples]

Thanks for the insight.  This is a really great website by the way!
God Bless

[japdip]

Microcalcifications can be either benign or an indication of a very early cancer ... most come back benign after biopsy which may be recommended after you get the additional films. A density can be something as simple as some tissue that has folded over on itself and may not even be there on the magnification views that are scheduled. NOV. 6th isn't all that far away although the waiting is always the worst. Just try to calm yourself and don't go overboard until you get the results of the new films.  Regards .....

[laurainnaples]

I mean to say more concerned.  I am quite freaked out - but I don't want to overanalyze it until there's a diagnosis (if any)....