Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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Poodles, hugs to your mom & you. Hope they find an answer soon and she can regain some of her strength.
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Poodles, so very sorry about your mom's condition. So frustrating also that they can't find the source of the bleeding.
Trish, such a darling picture. And I'm impressed that their Christmas tree is up already!
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I always love to see everyone's pictures! Hope you all didn't gain 10 pounds like me! Lol!!! Poodles, prayers for your mom.
I have a question to ask. Last time I went to breast surgeon, he said to call back and schedule an appointment for after my mammogram so he can explain the results. The radiologist already spoke to me and basically said he wouldn't be able to tell even if anything was still there. My MO will get the results and so will I. I know how to read the results of a mammogram. Why would I need to go to surgeon? Seems like a waste of time and copay?
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Got to meet my medical oncologist and get more details about my treatment, definitely makes me feel better. So after my margin clean up this week, we heal up and plan the radiation, need to do an estrogen check to figure out which long term drugs to use. Looks like it will be 10 years and will be starting before or during radiation. He also said that I could qualify for one or more national trials. Got to ask all of my questions. Can't wait to get this moving. Even got some shopping in!!!!!! Not a bad day at all
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LG, no answers from me. My BS coordinated all my care. Sounds like your MO is. Wish I could help!
ArtyMom, Isn't it nice to move forward? Very happy for you!
HUGS!
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ArtyMom, glad you have your treatment plan and you can move forward. Such a good feeling going on to next steps.
LG, my BS and RO were at 2 different hospitals. So I had confusion on who was supposed to manage my mammogram. BS said I would get it at my 6 month follow up, but when I scheduled appt with her, she didn't order it (maybe she would have ordered it after exam?). When I finished rads, my RO had said he would manage it. Both places could do 3-D imaging. So I went ahead and had RO order it as he's nearby & BS is over an hour away. The radiologist gave me the results same day, I didn't have to wait to see either doctor. Radiologist told me I'd be getting a mammo on bad side every 6 mos for 2 years, good side annually. Took images with me when I went to see BS.
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Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! Trying to catch up, but this thread is way ahead of me.
Poodles - hoping you have been able to get some rest and that they get an effective treatment plan for your mom soon. It must be so hard to see her so miserable.
Elizabeth - hope you are turning the corner today and can enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.
Trish - love the picture!
Peggy - I'm thankful you live closer than Michigan
LG- I had one of those follow-up BS appointments I didn't see value in. Ended up cancelling 48 hours in advance. No regrets. I agree...sometimes it's hard to understand why the appointment was scheduled in the first place.
For those of you who are on Prolia. I got a suprise last week when I went for my second injection. Love the nurse at my MO and when she came out to get me she told me she always calls the insurance company right before giving an injection just to confirm coverage. Glad she did. United Health Care will only pay if injection is exactly 6 months or more since the last injection. I was 2 days early and they would have declined payment. I have rescheduled for Monday, but she sure is a blessing. I would have been out close to $2,000 if she hadn't called.
Here is a picture with my DH taken yesterday. He hates to have his picture taken, but that egg nog in the foreground put a smile on his face. So thankful for successful treatment and the support of the women on this thread!
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Sue, great picture of the two of you! Love the smiles
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Sue, thank you for the kind words. I'm so happy I'm closer than Michigan, too. Love my West Coast BCO'ers! BTW, a few years ago I ran into something similar to your Prolia snafu. I was scheduling my mammogram less than 1 year after the previous one. Had to wait a full year. Really annoying. Again, staff saved me from having to pay out of the pocket. $2,000 is a lot to have to pay. Glad your Prolia is covered! And I love the photo of you and Bruce. Obviously, Thanksgiving was great!
HUGS!
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Thanks for the tip about waiting 6 months for Prolia, Sue. I will make sure that if my PCP does manage to get prior auth, we will wait till at least 6 mos.+1 day after my Zometa infusion (an experience I don't care to repeat).
I have all my cancer care at NorthShore (soon to merge with Advocate, which operates Bob's main hospital Christ Medical Center) Evanston Hospital; my PCP is at Presence St. Joseph, but he is no fan of Presence's specialists other than St. Joseph's breast surgeon and two of the general surgeons (the one who did Bob's hemicolectomy & the other his hernia repair) at its sister hospital St. Francis of Evanston (the closest ER to us that the CFD ambulances use). For every other specialty, he prefers the NorthShore system. Evanston has its own Center for Breast Health, where I get my imaging and see my BS or her NP; its Dept. of Nuclear Medicine administers its Bone Density Screening and Radiation Oncology divisions (where I had my rads); and attached to the hospital (a short walk down the corridor from Nuke Med) is Kellogg Cancer Center, where I see my MO, had my Zometa infusion (in the non-chemo private roomettes in the infusion suite), and do Qi Gong and Mindfulness Meditation. At the other end of the hospital is the professional building where I see my LE doc & PTs and attend my monthly support group (as does Peaches2here on BCO). My derm and ortho surgeons are also NorthShore (Skokie & Highland Park).
The way my imaging followups have worked is initial bilateral mammo 6-8 months after the end of rads (give or take a month or two depending on availability, assuming I don't notice anything in between—in which case it's on an ASAP basis), read by the radiologist, followed by a visit with either the BS' NP or the BS herself. The BS & her NP are the ones who review the results of the mammo with me and recommend scheduling for the next followup. In my case, I had my first followup in June 2016, and the mammo indicated no change in the L breast from the pre-dx screening mammo in Aug. 2015 that showed "normal scattered fibroglandular densities;" the R showed the presence of a seroma where the tumor had been removed. I saw the NP. Based on that, she recommended a 6-month followup bilateral diagnostic mammo to see if the seroma has shrunk, followed by an appt. immediately thereafter with the BS. Depending on what they find (assuming no suspicious changes), they will recommend a 6-mo. followup if the seroma is still large or 12-mo. if it has shown major progress in resorbing and all else is well. I suspect because of the radiation fibrosis that has cropped up in my R areola & nipple (the lateral fibrosis over the seroma is all but gone) I'll remain on the 6-month plan. (Both the BS and RO say it's radiation fibrosis, but they haven't seen it—just heard my description). So I have the next mammo & BS appt. Dec. 13.
My MO is unusual in that she wants to take care of only my cancer-related health issues and defers to my PCP for everything else, even though he’s in a different healthcare system. (The EPIC platform allows physicians immediate access to information in all of a patient’s online portals at various healthcare systems, so long as the patients have signed a HIPAA release).
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Sandy, that's great that all your docs can access your information. I didn't have that in Pontiac. I'm using the same health care system for everything here (Providence). All my docs should be in it but apparently there is some thought that my PCP isn't. How come he shows up on the hospital's page for family doctors then? I'll figure it out sometime. So far I've used urgent care and even the ER and been extremely impressed with both. Monday I went to UC feeling out of sorts. Dx is "viral syndrome." Today I went to the ER with arm pain. EKG showed nothing and PA said I didn't present heart symptoms (my worry, of course). I was home to ER to home in less than 1-1/2 hours. Everything was so efficient. I think I have LE so will be contacting my MO for an appointment Monday. I have only an MO here. I couldn't see any reason to have a BS or RO since I'm done with both.
HUGS!
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Interesting how it works differentlyfrom system to system. Post surgery and radiation my MO declared that she is now my primary care doctor (replacing my former internist). I guess after 5 years they send me back to my original PCP. Fine with me...my MO is great!
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I’m wondering whether the reason for my MO’s preference to defer to my PCP is that she (the MO) is not in private practice but rather employed by Kellogg Cancer Center, with no capitation bonuses. So she gets paid the same no matter the size of her patient caseload—taking over primary care of her patients who already have PCPs would carry all of the burdens and risks and none of the benefits and rewards.
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I guess everywhere is different. My breast surgeon said i would need to go back to my internist for treatment since she is strictly a surgeon. But I told her that I was not too happy with my internist and was thinking of changing to another dr. Anyway she then referred me to an MO and to a radiologist oncologist and told me to see her after radiation for the final visit. I was grateful that she handled the referrals for me since my current internist isn't quite on the ball
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My RO doesn’t want to see me unless I or any of my other docs think there’s something seriously wrong that could have been caused by radiation (and/or could be remedied by him…not very likely). He is a very nice man, a caring and expert doctor—but no offense, I hope I never have to see him again except socially.
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Carrie,
There are a lot of factors to be considered for determining which is best course of action, lumpectomy or mastectomy. But key thing to keep in mind is that YOU are in control, so weigh all the info and pros/cons carefully. I am not sure of all your info, but my BS was overly confident that a lx would still work for me, even though my 2 masses were in 2 very different areas in breast. The chance of recurrence was the same (due to age, mass size, biopsy results, etc.) whether I did a lx or mx. Is the 6cm you note in your signature a total size of all 3? I agree with Molly (or whoever suggested) that you may want to consider getting another opinion. I got 3 different ones
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Hi All
all good for me from here in....
Had my follow up appointment after my lumpectomy, no cancer found & no more cutting, poking & prodding, just yearly visits 👏👏👏👏
My surgeon explained I had "very complicated" breasts & best course of action is wait & see what yearly monitoring brings... Happy with that - unhappy to have to stop my estrogen therapy but better than the ulternitive...
So feeling like crap, not sleeping at night, having my own personal summers again & even tho I am relieved I had great results - I feel like bawling my eyes out... But still better than 👎 results
Trying to eat better, exercise & put this whole thing behind me.
Thank You for your understanding & wish all those going thru, waiting or enduring all the best...
Kathy
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Dara , your grandchildren are adorable . Trish and Sue , sweet photos . Thanks for sharing . My BS continues to follow me for a while longer due to my genetic mutation . MO refers me back to my pcp for anything non cancer . We had our Thanksgiving on Friday . Thursday was strange . Just me , DH and Wyatt.
Peggy , I hope you feel better and get the LE expert to look at your arm.
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Newbie here, Diagnosed DCIS 10/13/16, had lumpectomy 11/10/16. Pathology from that was suspicious for microinvasion so another surgery is needed to remove sentinel lymph node and remove a little more tissue from the biopsy area. I have been told the node removal will be quite a bit more painful than the lumpectomy. Just wondering if anyone would share their similar experience so I can know what to expect.
Thanks,
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JShannon, Welcome! Glad you found us. We're warm, comforting. informative and (sometimes) a bit zany. It's not so much that the SLN removal is painful - it is REALLY annoying! Everything seems to rub it. And for me, it took over a year for the nerves to come back to nearly normal. So don't be apprehensive - you won't feel like dying from it at all. Also, please fill out your profile and make it public by clicking this Settings. We can't remember all the details for each gal, though we try, so this is a huge help. I'm pretty sure we have some Texas members - glad you posted that (maybe consider putting a city on it too). Many of us have gotten together in real life and found it wonderful!
Let us know how it goes after your surgery (which is when?). We're with you!
HUGS!
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Molly, I plan on calling my MO Monday to see what's going on. I've had enough of being bothered with it. Thanks!
HUGS!
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Corah, your "own personal summers"!!! I get those, too. Totally going to steal that
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Peggy, I hope you do not have LE. Is there any swelling? Please keep us posted!
Poodles, I hope your mom is doing better. Wish they could pinpoint the problem! I feel bad that it is such a long drive for you to be with her. But I'm sure there is no chance you could convince her to move closer to you.
Hope everyone is finding some enjoyment today! I'm doing some online shopping and some cooking.
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Hi Kdtheatre,
As a newbie, I messed up my profile dx.... I have two 6mm (not CM- derp...) masses near each other at 8 and 10 o'clock, and a new one of similar size at 4 o'clock. A nurse actually called me Wednesday, and I was able to request proper lab reports (hormone receptors), and ask about the lumpectomy issue. She told me that when there are masses in more than one quadrant on the breast (which is the case now with me), lumpectomy is no longer an option. As much as I hate the idea of a mastectomy, I can understand the assumption that if I have masses in several places, the odds are likely that there are little seed masses scattered in other areas.
Second/third opinions sound great, but getting names and actual appointments for opinions seems daunting... I'm trying to juggle a high-pressure job and taking care of an old home by myself at the same time. I guess I can wait until I get the biopsy results from lump #3 and see if I can get a quick second opinion before surgery. That makes nothing BUT sense.... I just have to find the drive (in low supply these days) to DO it.
Thanks!
Carrie
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Elizabeth, I hope you are feeling better. When I switched to Herceptin only, the first time the nurse did it over half an hour and I went home with a headache and felt lousy too. Since I was going to be returning to work I couldn't have that happening so I asked them to do it over 45 minutes instead. Amazing what a 15 minute difference makes. I am more than halfway done them now and haven't had any issues since. Maybe adding 15 more minutes to your dosing will help you
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Peggy, sorry to hear... pray you get good results from your MO
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Thanks, Judy. I'll let you know.
HUGS!
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JShannon, I had to have a second surgery to get clean margins. And since the first surgery not only showed the original DCIS, there was also a small spot of IDC, I had the BS check the sentinel nodes when she went back in 2nd time. The 2nd surgery including the SNB wasn't any worse than 1st surgery. But as Peggy said, the SNB sure is annoying because your arm & clothes tend to rub it. Also, I have no feeling under arm & armpit. But everyone days it will eventually come back. When is your 2nd surgery?
Peggy, hope they can figure out what's going on quickly!
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Thanks, Trish. Me, too.
HUGS!
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Thanks for responding Tbalding and PontiacPeggy. My second surgery is not scheduled yet. Just found out Wednesday that is was needed and offices were closed for Thanksgiving. I will hopefully get it scheduled for the coming week or the next week. You have both made me feel so much better, and it helps so much to know that others have been in this same place. And this community is just wonderful. Will keep you posted.
Thanks!
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