The whole cancer treatment world expects that you are totally at their beck and call. That you will see the doctor when they have an opening. Whenever that opening is. I can see their point.
Unfortunately Mike had meeting in Georgia scheduled the one day the surgeon had an opening in the coming two weeks, so I went without him. My dear friend L went with me. She is calm under chaos, intelligent and asks great questions. My advocate, because I knew I would remember little of the appointment.
I chose a surgeon who was highly recommended by my one friend who was an oncologist specializing in breast cancer and is now in academia. Just give me one recommendation for each, I asked her - surgeon, oncologist, radiologist. What more information could I possible gather than that from someone in the field who I trust?
The appointment was fantastic. Dr. R is a gift to anyone who needs her. First, her humble yet upbeat office is full of staff who are competent and compassionate. And she, well, she knows what she is doing, she listens, she solves problems, she is awesome. Should every doctor be this way.
Statistically, mastectomy gives same long term survival rates as lumpectomy with radiation, in my situation. She was clear on this. She would recommend lumpectomy, with no hesitation. We talked about the lumpectomy, sentinel node biopsy would be done at same time. If they found cancer in the sentinel node while I was still under, they would take out all the nodes on the left side.
Sounds good to me. L was great, kept going over the appointment discussion in the car with me driving home. Yes it was my decision to have a lumpectomy or mastectomy. If cutting off my breasts gave me a better chance long term of living, I would do it. But it doesn't, so why cut them off?
Mike came home that night, and I greeted him with ... I'm keeping the girls!
