I received a call from my breast surgeon at 4:30 p.m today. Invasive ductal cancer, only grading was as a "low grade" from the histology section of the report. He said that the pathologist said there was NOT enough tissue from the core biopsy to send in for the other markers, like ER+ that I was most interested in. I am scheduled to see him on Thursday to set up surgery which he said would allow for lumpectomy and radiation on the basis of a limited path report. If you've read my other postings, I am not an M.D. but have a B.S. as a Medical Technologist along with graduated hours as a veterinary pathologist, and then a Master's as a Medical Librarian. Someone who I considered to be a pretty close friend called me on the phone tonight after reading my email to my "friends" and family, telling them that all things considered, with a good possiblity of a Stage 1 diagnosis per the surgeon, that I was looking at a lumpectomy and radiation. The surgeon reinforced this possiblity on the phone this afternoon.
This "friend" who was a nurse 20years ago, started lecturing me that I should consider a mastectomy. This really caught me off guard. I might have expected this from people who are scientifically trained, but not from her. She totally discounted my training as a medical technologist and as a Master's student in pathology. Duh, I didn't have any nursing majors in my Pre-Med classes! I certainly did not have any nursing majors in my classes that I took with veterinary students. Maybe those of you how are not educated with the sphere of knowledge a veterinarian must learn, will think, "well, they are only animal doctors!" Guess what, you have to learn pathology and pharmacology in multiple species.
I ended up cutting off the conversation with her because I was crying. My husband came into the room and heard me trying to have an intelligent conversation with her, with only more frustration. Have any of you reached out to people you thought were your friends, only to have their egos get in the way of offering you support? I needed to hear that you are NOT a person who makes impulse decisions; you are a trained scientist who considers every thing you do very carefully.
What is even more of a state of how I feel, I organized the largest fund raiser for the Republican Party in my county that our group has ever had. This woman was a former Republican party official. She has just lost the skills I acquired from years in the corporate environment, in a year when the Republican party needs people like me. Do NOT speak to me in a condesending tone. If we can exchange information as equals, that is one thing, but telling me that I cannot research anything with a Master's in Health Informatics is quite another. So much for sharing from here on out. - Kay