Surgery Date and Other Tidbits

After meeting with oncologists I decided to go ahead and have a single masectomy, and it is scheduled for October 2 at 8:00 a.m. It is about a 5 hour surgery because they are going to do reconstruction at the same time, which means they put something called a tissue expander in there, and I will have to go for monthly appointments and eventually have the tissue expander replaced with an implant (probably next spring or summer).
I know some of you are wondering, how did you get all the way to surgery #3 before making this decision? It is not an easy road, digesting information, talking to others with similar experiences, and ultimately deciding between a couple of options. My surgeon was very nice indicating that many people have breast conserving surgery and radiation and take tamoxifen and that is the extent of their treatment. One thing I learned in meeting with oncologists (separate from my surgeon) is that the size of the tumor and stage of cancer often drives the treatment recommendations.  I also learned that this can vary depending on what doctor or oncologist you get your opinion from.  Right from the start I knew if I had a good surgeon, I would get good recommendations for follow up treatments. I have a great surgeon and she works with different oncologists who have different treatment recommendations. Some people who might share the same surgeon might choose different oncologists depending on their insurance or friend recommendations.

Radiologists and oncologists have guidelines they follow, but some of them also treat each person as an individual and not as a category. The one thing I liked about the medical oncologist I talked to is that he said to me, "I will not make a recommendation about chemotherapy until I see the pathology report, and  talk to some colleagues who have been doing this longer than me. I will share your case with them and we will talk about the best treatment."  I want to know that utmost thought and research was put into my case, so I can truly say, "I trust your recommendation." Christian or not, God has given many people wonderful brains and abilities for "such a time as this." I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to live in a time period where we have advanced medical care. My prayer is that God will give wisdom to the surgeons and oncologists so that whatever treatment is recommended, I know it is from Him, traveling through them, and I will have peace that if I have to have chemo, that it has first been through God's hands.

Enough thought processing for today. Thank you for reading. If you would like to pray specifically, here are the names of my "team": Dr. Erika Rager, Surgeon; Dr. Hughes, plastic surgeon; Dr. Bolla, medical oncologist.  I will leave you with a link to my stage II diagnosis and what options there are for treatment if you are interested in learning more. Treatment for Stage II Breast Cancer (fyi, my tumor was 3.1 cm- considered large- and I have no cancer in my lymph nodes).