1st Meeting with Oncologist

Well, we met with the oncologist yesterday.  I'm not sure he told us anything that I didn't already know, but it was nice to have the confirmation of the plan of action.  It all seems to be moving so fast.  It was only 4 weeks ago that I made the first phone call.

I was not given a "stage" since I have not been cut open yet.  My mammogram says it's "no less than 4cm" and the oncologist measured about 6cm yesterday.  Being put into the category of stage 3 does not mean I am going to die!  It simply means that my tumor is huge.  I am having a CAT scan done on Friday (8/31) to look for any other spots.  I will be having an MRI on Tuesday (9/4) to get a better look at my breasts and lymph nodes.  We don't know if it has spread at all but hopefully we will after these tests.

The surgeon's office has scheduled me for my port surgery on Wednesday (9/5).  We want to start my chemotherapy around September 13th, so it needs to  be in 7 days prior.  A couple reasons for doing chemo before surgery- to nip the nasty cancer cells in the butt because they ARE the invasive type, and to watch the tumor shrink to confirm that the medicine is working.  This also may provide me with the chance for a lumpectomy instead of the mastectomy.  The doctors are concerned that because I am young and my cells reproduce rapidly, the cancer cells maybe also be rapidly reproducing as well and we want to stop it as quickly as possible.

The doctor is not sure which type of treatment he wants to give me yet.  There is a standard protocol for my type of cancer (invasive ductal carcinoma), but because of my age, he might change it up a little bit.  I could have treatments once every three weeks or once every two weeks. 

In the mean time, I'm searching the internet for support sites, for real information, etc so that I can cope with this.  It still seems so incredibly surreal.  Really, who has breast cancer at 28?  And with absolutely no risk factors?

Because it seems I actually have readers ;), if anyone has questions, post them.  I'll try to either answer in the comments or address them in the next post.