Let me preface this by saying that I haven’t talked to any of my doctors yet. This is just me reading medical reports and trying to make sense of them. And trying to be patient about talking to my doctors.
BUT.
The CT scan came back and didn’t really say anything we didn’t already know. The skin is very thickened on the left breast, and my lymph nodes look super weird.
BUT.
The skin biopsy came back and said there is NO malignancy in the skin. That means no inflammatory breast cancer. That means *good* news.
It means that we’re likely looking at a lumpectomy followed by radiation. Chemo is still a question mark. Hormone blockers is still a thing.
Can I get a hallelujah? Or an amen? Or a whatever you wanna use?
I’d spent a long time worrying about a mastectomy. Because my stuff is *always* weird and unexpected, so of *course* it was going to come back as inflammatory. Because why wouldn’t it? And why would I take the chance of it coming back?
But as it turns out, the survival odds are the same for a lump vs. a mastectomy, all other things equal. And at least as far as I know right now, my risk factors are not elevated. There’s no genetics, it’s not triple negative – there isn’t necessarily a “good” reason to go with an M vs. an L. So why put myself through an M?
I see the medical oncologist tomorrow to talk about hormone blockers and chemo options. Hopefully after that, I’ll be able to chat with my surgeon about options and such. I also have a Zoom session tonight on surgery where they’ll talk about the process, etc, and a Zoom on Friday to talk about radiation.
Progress.
This again? 