I meet the Team
The Breast Center is on its own floor of the hospital. It is quiet and serene up there. No blaring TV's, no over crowded waiting rooms. The chairs aren't that comfortable, or maybe it was me that was uncomfortable.
The center does multi team meetings on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Three women are assigned to each session. The nurse-oncologist was running late and so she brought all of us to the other end of the center together. In HUGE letters over this area's entrance were the words Breast Cancer Treatment Planning. Somehow that was a home run. It hit me.
My husband and I are directed to an examination room. We sit in the chairs and await the first doctor. Each of the three women get their own room and the doctors rotate from room to room. The first 45 minutes are spent collecting family information, medical history, and examination and just plain old talking. We got Dr. Roger to start with. He will be my oncologist. I liked Dr. Roger. He took all of my concerns very seriously.
My concerns are really simple. At the end of this, I still want to be able to play the violin and I still want to be able to problem solve. I found the questions they asked fascinating. Had I ever had scarlet fever, pneumonia, allergies, and a lot of menstrual questions. There was a lot of discussion about family history. With my sister's ovarian cancer diagnosis and my breast cancer, he really wants me to take part in some genetic testing. It was then time for the examination. Lying on the bench, no lump, sitting up, lump. This is why Susan the Doctor didn't feel it. Then Dr. Roger did a teaching moment with the resident. He is a good teacher too.
At this point, we are excused for 30 minutes so that the team can meet and discuss treatment options.
My next doctor, in this rotation, is the surgeon, Dr. Mary Ann. She is one smart woman, and I immediately liked her. She has a daughter Lauren's age. She doesn't like drains.... but I am getting ahead of myself. Dr. Mary Ann wants to do a partial mascetomy, which other doctors call a lumpectomy and a sentinel node biopsy. Here is what she told me: the team can't agree on the tumor size. The range is 1 cm-2.2 cm. It is estrogen positive and neu2 negative. These markers are good things. Dr. Mary Ann looked me in the eye and said I would look the same at the end. I signed something that said that I understood that if she didn't get clear margins or the nodes were dirty, she would have to do a second surgery. This is a risk I can live with if the damage to my right arm is kept to a minimum. This surgery will be outpatient! I am astonished.
She will make an incision that allows easy access to a further surgery if needed, and will heal well. She won't leave me with drains. She says 'clear the calendar for a week.' I am clearing two just in case.
The last group to visit me was the radiologists. There were two of them, they are a team. Mostly they described the individual plan that each patient receives. Maybe I had hit overload, but these two folks didn't leave me with a huge impression. They did mention a protocol that I might qualify for depending on what size my tumor ends up being.
And at the end, the nurse oncologist came in to give the overview. My tumor is 1 cm - 2.2 cm, estrogen positive, neu2 negative. Program will include surgery, genetic testing, 6 1/2 weeks of radiation and then chemo. The exact chemo will be determined following surgery. I am told that Dr. Mary Ann's assistant will call to schedule the surgery.
The center does multi team meetings on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Three women are assigned to each session. The nurse-oncologist was running late and so she brought all of us to the other end of the center together. In HUGE letters over this area's entrance were the words Breast Cancer Treatment Planning. Somehow that was a home run. It hit me.
My husband and I are directed to an examination room. We sit in the chairs and await the first doctor. Each of the three women get their own room and the doctors rotate from room to room. The first 45 minutes are spent collecting family information, medical history, and examination and just plain old talking. We got Dr. Roger to start with. He will be my oncologist. I liked Dr. Roger. He took all of my concerns very seriously.
My concerns are really simple. At the end of this, I still want to be able to play the violin and I still want to be able to problem solve. I found the questions they asked fascinating. Had I ever had scarlet fever, pneumonia, allergies, and a lot of menstrual questions. There was a lot of discussion about family history. With my sister's ovarian cancer diagnosis and my breast cancer, he really wants me to take part in some genetic testing. It was then time for the examination. Lying on the bench, no lump, sitting up, lump. This is why Susan the Doctor didn't feel it. Then Dr. Roger did a teaching moment with the resident. He is a good teacher too.
At this point, we are excused for 30 minutes so that the team can meet and discuss treatment options.
My next doctor, in this rotation, is the surgeon, Dr. Mary Ann. She is one smart woman, and I immediately liked her. She has a daughter Lauren's age. She doesn't like drains.... but I am getting ahead of myself. Dr. Mary Ann wants to do a partial mascetomy, which other doctors call a lumpectomy and a sentinel node biopsy. Here is what she told me: the team can't agree on the tumor size. The range is 1 cm-2.2 cm. It is estrogen positive and neu2 negative. These markers are good things. Dr. Mary Ann looked me in the eye and said I would look the same at the end. I signed something that said that I understood that if she didn't get clear margins or the nodes were dirty, she would have to do a second surgery. This is a risk I can live with if the damage to my right arm is kept to a minimum. This surgery will be outpatient! I am astonished.
She will make an incision that allows easy access to a further surgery if needed, and will heal well. She won't leave me with drains. She says 'clear the calendar for a week.' I am clearing two just in case.
The last group to visit me was the radiologists. There were two of them, they are a team. Mostly they described the individual plan that each patient receives. Maybe I had hit overload, but these two folks didn't leave me with a huge impression. They did mention a protocol that I might qualify for depending on what size my tumor ends up being.
And at the end, the nurse oncologist came in to give the overview. My tumor is 1 cm - 2.2 cm, estrogen positive, neu2 negative. Program will include surgery, genetic testing, 6 1/2 weeks of radiation and then chemo. The exact chemo will be determined following surgery. I am told that Dr. Mary Ann's assistant will call to schedule the surgery.
posted by *susan* at
10:31 PM
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