More Questions than Answers

So I was a little bit wrong about what was happening today.  I did not meet my "Cancer Team" at OHSU, but rather the "Nurse Navigator" at the Women's Health Center.  She meets with every single woman who comes through the center with breast cancer and explains what to expect.

Today we reviewed the radiology reports and she explained what it all means.  Bottom line: I have a big tumor but the cells are lazy (shocker!) so it's not rapidly growing at this point.

We talked about the many possibilities for treatment:
     * I can expect either a lumpectomy (removal of the tumor) followed by 5-6 weeks of daily radiation or a mastectomy (removal of the whole breast) which would not necessarily require radiation after the surgery
     * I may or may not have to undergo chemotherapy, and if I DO have chemo, we don't yet know whether I'll have that before or after the surgery
     * If I have chemo before the surgery, I could start as soon as next week (but probably won't, more on that in a minute)
     * If I have surgery, I could have it in one or two weeks, depending on the type of surgery and if I want reconstructive surgery as well

We also discussed the probability that, given my age, the doctors will want me to have genetic work done to determine if I carry the most common genes for cancer.  If I do, then we may explore even more radical options like a double mastectomy.  The genetic evaluation would take at least three weeks, which would obviously change the schedules above and may inform some of the treatment options like whether or not I'll have chemo.

My big questions were what stage is my cancer and when am I going to know if the breast cancer is localized or has spread?  The answer: it depends.  Regardless of the type of surgery I have, some lymph nodes will be removed to ensure that the MRI and ultrasounds were correct and that the cancer is not in my nodes.  A whole body scan sounds unlikely unless there is other evidence that the cancer is elsewhere.  The stage of cancer depends in part on how the cancer has spread, so it's going to be a while before we know for sure what's up with that.

When do I get to meet my CANCER TEAM?  It sounds like, on Thursday, I will meet at least some of them--the surgeon, Dr. Arpana Naik, probably the genetics department, and also the medical oncologist. Thursday afternoon I am also meeting with a fertility doctor to explore harvesting my eggs so that we can have another child once this is all over (hence the delay in chemo...)

Our friend, Kate, is a survivor of breast cancer and she gave me some pretty good advice during my tearful phone call to her this week: don't think of news as good or bad as you go through this process, just think of it as NEWS.  It's all just information to take in and consider as you walk down the path...and so we walk!!!