Donna in Hollywoodland

Breast Surgeon

My doctor had given me the names of Two Breast Suregeons to talk to. The first one, who is with Glendale Memorial Hospital made an appointment with me almost right away. The second one, who was through the UCLA Medical Center, has about a 3 week wait for an appointment.

Today was my appointment with the first Doctor. We had a long conversation in her office.
I liked her right away because she asked me "Did they tell you what you have?"
I said "Yes, Beast Cancer".
She said "Ok, I wanted to make sure you already knew you had Breast Cancer before I started to discuss treatment. Sometimes women come in and no one has told them it is breast cancer, so they walk into the office not knowing."
I thought that was great that she was so sensitive. I think it is good that she wanted to hear me say the words "Breast Cancer" first.

We went over the entire details of what was going on with me.
She showed me my Mammogram from 2002, which was clear and healthy. Then she showed me my recent Mammogram which had alot of white cloudy stuff going on. I was shocked at the change.
"How did that happen?" I asked.
She said, alot of reasons, Hormones for one, as I was peri-menopausal.

But there are alot of tests to do first .
They have to double-check and make sure there is no cancer anywhere else in my Breasts via a MRI.
Then, they have to check to see if there is cancer anywhere else in my body via a CT Scan and a Bone Scan.
They will check for Cancer in my Lymph Nodes while they are removing the tumor, with a Lymph Node Biopsy.

If nothing else shows up on any of these other tests, I will only need a Lumpectomy, followed by about 6 weeks of local radiation to the breast area.
If something shows up on the other tests, then we will figure it out then.
If the cancer is only in my left breast, then I only need localized radiation treatment. They would only do chemotherapy if there is anymore cancer located in another part of my body.
I was very happy to hear that.

I thought I was very brave, and handling it all very well... until she mentioned one thing.
She said she thought the Cancerous Tumor was far enough away from my Nipple, that she would be able to save the Nipple area.
Then, I started crying.

I guess I was thinking I would lose my Nipple. I didn't realize how important keeping my Nipple would be to me. When she said that I was never happier in my life.

Turns out that the type of Cancer I have, which is basically Cancer of the Milk Duct - is usually located right behind the nipple. And since along with the Tumor, they usually remove a certain amount of normal tissue around it to make sure they get it all. This usually means that the nipple area has to be removed.

But my tumor is in a milk duct, just below my nipple, at about six o'clock. So there is enough room for the surgeon to remove enough tissue, and possibly for me to
keep the nipple.

We then went into the examining room. She has an ultrasound machine. She looked at the Tumor, and at my lymph nodes. My lymph nodes look good, so it is promising that I won't have to go through having them removed.
We went over more of what would need to be removed.

She said she might have to remove part of the Areola of my nipple. Gee, I never thought of my nipple as having "pieces". I just think of it all as one piece. I guess medically it is not.
The areola would probably just be cut off ending in a straight line at the bottom.
And since they are removing tissue at the bottom of my breast, my nipple might point downward, or in a different direction. Tho I could have reconstruction surgery at a later date to fix that if I wanted.
But at this point I really didn't care about all of that.... I was just happy that I get to keep all my "Parts".

We made appointments for me to get a Blood Test, and MRI, The CT Scan and the Bone Scan.
Looks like I am going to very busy with doctor appointments for a bit...

But she expects me to be in surgery roughly within 3 weeks. They don't want to wait on these things.

Once I got back to the office, I decided I didn't want to wait the 3 weeks for the appointment with the Breast Surgeon at UCLA. I liked the Doctor I met this afternoon just fine, and I like what she was going to do. She would have me in surgery in three weeks, but if I waited for the UCLA doctor I would just be meeting her for the first time in three weeks.
I can at least go through all the tests she is requesting and then if something happens that I don't like, then I can switch to the UCLA doctor and the tests will already be done.
I feel time is of the essence right now, and I don't want to wait to long for anything.