To Surgery or Not To Surgery

Hello everyone,

So the latest update is that I am now not going for surgery and will start radiation treatment in the next two weeks.

Let’s just say these past two weeks have been very stressful. I met with my medical oncologist last Wednesday which is where I was told I would need to go for more surgery but he was going to confer with the rest of the medical team.  So I spent the weekend getting my feet back under me after that blow.

Monday morning I received a phone call from the doctor who had done my surgery. He let me know that the surgery went really well and the pathology showed a narrow margin but as it was along my chest wall they could not go any further to widen the margin.  (Margin being the amount of cancer free tissue on the edges of the tissue removed). At this point I was royally confused and expressed my confusion as I had been told on Wednesday that I would need to go for more surgery.  The surgeon also expressed his confusion at this and said he would look into it. At this point I called Steve, who called over to the clinic to seek clarification and was rather abruptly told that I would be discussed at rounds the upcoming Friday as the Doctor had just told me. I would like to clarify that in fact the doctor had not told me that. He said he was going to talk to some colleagues casually and get their opinion before moving forward to a full rounds discussion.  However I realized that calling that person back would not be productive as I was feeling emotional and did not want to speak with someone who was rude as I did not feel I could be polite to them.

So then I decided to contact the medical oncologist who had told me that I would be going for surgery in the previous week to see if he had spoke  with the rest of the medical team. I left a message for his nurse to call me back. After waiting a few hours for a response I did not know what to do as my stress level was all over the place. My response to my distress and confusion was anger. I was so frustrated about getting one message then another and after having fallen through the cracks when it came to booking appointments (another frustration i will not delve into)I decided to head over to the cancer clinic for some answers. So I went over and asked for someone to come speak with me for 5 minutes about what exactly is going on as I did not want to wait until Friday for them to maybe discuss me at rounds.  After waiting for over an hour someone was sent down to tell me I could come back on Wednesday to talk with the Dr. I asked if it would be possible to talk to someone before then. I didn’t need a full appointment I just needed to be updated with exactly was going on.  After some more time my nurse came down and put me in a room to see the doctor. I think she was very frustrated with me. Which I completely understand as they were very busy seeing other patients. However, I also needed answers and was not comfortable in further delays.

So feeling a little sheepish but determined I waited to see my doctor. When he came he was very good and did not make me feel rushed at all. Even though I knew he was! IT’s very impressive how doctors and nurses can do that! Anyways he told me that he had been able to speak with the radiation doctor but not the surgeon and that the radiation doctor suggested we go for more surgery. However he needed to talk to the surgeon yet. I clarified that I would be going for some form of surgery whether it was a full mastectomy or just another lumpectomy. However the most important clarification was that this was not a big rush  as they were not concerned that cancer was left behind. If any was it would be microscopic levels. So leaving with some sort of answer I still felt very anxious but some semblance of order was restored.

Wednesday I receive a phone call that was booking me to meet with the radiation doctor on Friday. I met with him on Friday and was told that I will not be going for surgery as there was nothing more that could be done surgically.  He then explained that mastectomy has a comparable survival rate as a lumpectomy with radiation so my survival rate was not going to change. I asked him if he had any concerns moving forward without a mastectomy and he said no. So that was surprising and happy news for me.  So I asked how soon we could get started. Well, that day. Sort of. He went and checked to see if they had room for me to go get “landmarked”. I went down and got “landmarked” (my term not theirs). This means I have three tiny tattoo dots on my torso so that they can ensure an accurate placement of the radiation.

So radiation will start Thursday of next week. The exact number of treatments is unclear.

Until next time,

Left Foot’n and Right Foot’n

Steve and Alyssa