National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

My story is that I found a lump late in my 2nd pregnancy, and sort of dismissed it as just the boob getting ready for nursing. I kept forgetting to mention it to my ObGyn at all of my prenatal visits...more concerned with the baby...and since it didn't hurt unless I got bumped there, it just kept slipping my mind. So, after my son was born (12/4/07), I had the lactation nurses and the doc who was on duty that day look at it, and that started this whole process. I had to go to my regular ObGyn to look at it; he referred me to the hospital’s Breast Center for an ultrasound; then back to my ObGyn for a referral to the breast surgeon who did a core biopsy which happily diagnosed it as a benign fibro adenoma. All of the above happened by the time my baby was about 6 weeks old. Meantime, BTW, I kept breast feeding on the good side, which seemed to surprise the doctors that I could do. I thought that was amusing...they reacted to that as though I was so talented, when, in fact, breast feeding for me even for my first son, who’s now 2, was a challenge (never enough milk). Anyway, my surgery to remove the fibro adenoma was on 2/22/08, and on 2/29/08 I went back for my follow-up and the path showed it was in fact DCIS (Stage 0, mid-grade…2 out of 3). At this point, I had to stop breastfeeding so they could get a clear picture of what was going on. All the milk and the distension of the cells makes it hard for the docs to really see what's going on. My breast surgeon, at my original appointment with him to get the results of the ultrasound, even said my pictures, when compared to a non-lactating woman looked, "Ugly...SCARY ugly." (Yikes!) I had an MRI on 3/13/08 and on 3/21/08 got the results of the MRI...confirming nothing going on in the left side and no node involvement, so lumpectomy with rads was still the recommended course of action. On 4/8/08 I had my second surgery, but didn't get clear margins, which I found out on 4/14/08. I got an appt with the plastic surgeon on 4/17/08, and he agrees with the breast surgeon that, even if I try for another lumpectomy, which my breast surgeon is willing to do, I would need recon. So, my decision is to go with a right mast with recon (tissue expanders) starting immediately, which would mean no rads required. I’m just waiting for my surgeon’s office to call me back with a surgery date. I was pretty calm about my decision until my husband, whom I love dearly and feel so bad for because I know he’s stressed and worried about all of this – and, like most men, is a “fixer” – started questioning my decision. He wasn’t doing it in a mean way, but his first reaction was to try again with the lumpectomy and rads (although, at this point, I don’t think it’s really called a lumpectomy???). Problem is, the doc can’t guarantee they’ll get all of the DCIS, which would mean yet another surgery (and no choice but to have a mast, then). Aside from the inconvenience of weeks of rads treatments, I’m concerned that my skin will be compromised by the rads and the delay to get the recon going may make recon more difficult and the result not as good. Not to mention the fact that, without the mast, I'll be worried that there could be another kind of cancer hanging around in there, too, even though everything is still showing only DCIS, but now high grade (3 out of 3). Oh, and in the meantime, my husband got a great job offer out of state – something we’ve been working toward for the last 2-3 years! – so we’re trying to figure out how to orchestrate THAT into this whole whirlwind, if possible, but putting my health decisions first of course. Can we stop the world now? It’s spinning way to fast, and I’d like to get off!!!
Judy