Get comfy, it's a long update.
I met with my new oncologist yesterday, Dr. Patt (thank you, Marni, for the recommendation!), and she seems great. She wasn't even scheduled to be in the office yesterday and came in just so we could meet ASAP.
*Diagnosis:
So, here's the deal. It looks like we are working with the invasive type of ductal carcinoma. She's staging it as a 2A (Stage 1 being the smallest and stage 4 being most advanced) based on its size and the fact that she couldn't feel any involvement of my lymph nodes with it (which doesn't mean it's not there, just that she couldn't feel any).
So, here's the deal. It looks like we are working with the invasive type of ductal carcinoma. She's staging it as a 2A (Stage 1 being the smallest and stage 4 being most advanced) based on its size and the fact that she couldn't feel any involvement of my lymph nodes with it (which doesn't mean it's not there, just that she couldn't feel any).
*Other diagnostic testing:
Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) does have the potential to metastasize. If it does, it tends to like to go party in the lymph nodes, bones, bone marrow, liver, lungs, and brain. Because of that, in the next few days I'll be getting an MRI, chest x-ray, bone scan, and lab work (CBC, LFTs, etc.) to get more data and see if the breast cancer has been behaving itself or if it's been sneaking out with its friends at night.
Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) does have the potential to metastasize. If it does, it tends to like to go party in the lymph nodes, bones, bone marrow, liver, lungs, and brain. Because of that, in the next few days I'll be getting an MRI, chest x-ray, bone scan, and lab work (CBC, LFTs, etc.) to get more data and see if the breast cancer has been behaving itself or if it's been sneaking out with its friends at night.
Also, the average age for people to get breast cancer is around 60 which makes me a bit of a prodigy (my mom always did say I was advanced for my age), so we'll do genetic testing too to see if I have the BRCA gene mutation.
We're also still waiting on additional information from the biopsy to see what hormones/proteins may be involved in helping the cancer grow. Knowing that and the information from all of the other above testing will help us decide on the best course of treatment.
*Treatment plan:
I'll be meeting with Dr. Patt again on Thursday morning to review everything. The exact plan will be decided then and will be some combination of surgery/chemo/radiation/endocrine therapy and/or clinical trials in various orders. We'll also probably start on it pretty much immediately. Regardless of the exact plan, though, I most likely WILL have a mastectomy (probably both sides), chemo for 4.5-6 months, and radiation for 6 weeks. And because chemo can affect my heart, I'm also getting a heart ultrasound (an echo) this week to get a baseline for what it looks like before we start.
I'll be meeting with Dr. Patt again on Thursday morning to review everything. The exact plan will be decided then and will be some combination of surgery/chemo/radiation/endocrine therapy and/or clinical trials in various orders. We'll also probably start on it pretty much immediately. Regardless of the exact plan, though, I most likely WILL have a mastectomy (probably both sides), chemo for 4.5-6 months, and radiation for 6 weeks. And because chemo can affect my heart, I'm also getting a heart ultrasound (an echo) this week to get a baseline for what it looks like before we start.
And you know, if I someone had just told me that cancer has so much homework involved, I don't think I'd have signed up for it. It's really cutting into my schedule. But because of that, I'm also putting nurse practitioner school on hold for now. Related: If you're one of my medical friends, I have to tell you that I gave one *KICK-ASS* SBAR to my professors yesterday about this whole deal. I'm pretty proud of myself on it.
Now, onward.
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