And Then There Were Three

Hello all,

This is a quick recap of today's meeting with Dr. Leslie Montgomery at Sloan Kettering.

I (as well as Mom) really liked her. She was very thorough, well-spoken, polished, informative, confident, had great bedside manner. And there is an overall feeling of confidence you get while being in the hands of a SK doc.

As the others agreed, I will need an bi-lateral breast MRI which I thankfully was able to schedule tomorrow. (For those who want all the 411, this must be scheduled 1-14 days from the 1st day of your cycle). I will get this done at Westside Radiology. The results as we know by now, will show if anything else is in the L+R side. In addition to this, it was suggested I go for a core biopsy. This is similar to the fine needle aspiration I got but done with a much larger needle. This will help determine what kind of cancer it is.

Those results take only a few days to get back.

Dr. Montgomery believes there is a lot of validity to the BRACA testing just like Estabrook did. I will opt to get this test done b/c it's important to know the results even if I didn't take the radical approach suggested (removal of ovaries and breasts, the former being even a bigger priority since there is no good testing for it and I'd have a greater chance of getting OC. BUT, let's see and hope that I test negative for that).

Re surgery, I was under the impression that I could get a lumpectomy and go through the 5-6 weeks radiation and if later I decide I don't like the way I look, I could then opt for reconstructive surgery. This approach, however, was not recommended by this dr. b/c after the radiation, one is more susceptible to infection, you don't heal as well, etc. So a lot of thought must be put into this before surgery--that is, do I go for just the lumpectomy or the mastectomy (in addition to the sentintel node removal).

SK recommends everyone getting chemotherapy if your tumor is 1cm or larger. The type of chemo though would depend on the cancer, size, etc. There's all the hormone testing that needs to be done--do the receptors react positive (which means hormones are responsible for creating cancer) in which case you go on the hormone therapy (eg. tamoxofin) for five years.

In the future, after all this is resolved, I would go stricltly for MRI's vs. Mammos and watched like a hawk. This is due to the young age at which I got this @#$@#$%#$^.

Once again, we cannot know anything until the results are in. I am just recapping what this dr said. I definitely am understanding more and more as I speak to more dr's and read the info that's out there.

I am as calm as I can be. I am surrounded by some really smart people and I don't live in a 3rd world country. And I have all of you to thank for reaching out.

Stay tuned for the next installment on the boob tube. Coming attractions include MRI and biopsy results.

Talk about reality tv.

Best,
Liz