Feeling a bit bewildered lost angry and frustrated. Diagnosed 10 days ago by surgeon for local recurrence (lump in armpit). Surgeon said because of its position he wanted to shrink it with chemo first and for me to have a CT scan and oncology appt. Saw oncologist on Wednesday and he said he thought I should have surgery first then chemo! My surgeon now on holiday for 2 weeks so onc asked for 2 second opinions from surgeons at the clinic. Upshot is they want to wait for results of ct scan. However I have no date yet for CT scan and no other hospital appt. I have left 2 messages for breast care nurse today and no one has got back to me. I now seem to have no plan. Who will do surgery- my surgeon seems to think it needs shrinking how will he feel about doing something he wasnt planning doing in that way. Who will make the decision in the absence of my surgeon and so many questions. Any suggestions lovely people? I so loved having a plan, though didnt like idea of chemo felt calmer. Now all up in air and agitated again!
What a bloody pain in the ****! From my experience the surgeons seem to be the ones who are the most up to date and on the ball not the Oncologists and if he is saying chemo first then I would be tempted to go with that .Can you have a consult with one of the other surgeons ?
If your surgeon is away ask if you can have an appointment with one of his team to discuss this .I only actually saw the surgeon who did op once but her colleagues have been really good too .
Hi Mooney,
i think this situ isnt unheard of…but at my hospital thay meet together and agree a way forward before speaking to the patient!
just for info tho, I did have pre op chemo to see if my lump( quite a large one 8x7 cmx)
would shrink before surgery…might have saved my breast, but it didnt shrink sufficiently and i ended up with a mastec.
Some doctors believe its best to remove the cancer first so as to give the body a chance to fight. Others think as my surgeon did…lets see if we can cut down the size of the surgery. Either way, you will be having good treatment, but im sorry the two have given you conflicting advice…which has made you more anxious. Xx
yes, try and get to see another one on the surgeons team. If noone gets back to you ring the switchboard and ask for the Cons’s secretaryxx
best of luck, I will be watching yo see how you get on. Try not to worry, you will get sorted and the conflicting advice is not going to hold everything up…
Love and hugs,
Moijanxx
Brilliant Mooney, well done! Fancy the surgeon not having gone…great you just caught him. You must feel so much better?
hugs, Moijanxx
Glad you feel better.
Hi,
If it helps, I was given the choice of whether to do chemo or surgery first as it would make no difference to my ultimate outcome - so it might be that your surgeon/onc just had different personal preferences, rather than it being a cut and dried medical decision.
I opted for chemo first to shrink the tumours because I wanted to have the option of a lumpectomy available to me (though in the end I decided to go for an mx anyway, even though the chemo had done it’s job) and also I wanted to get the worse bit ot of the way first (rather like eating your veg first at dinnertime!).
So don’t worry if they still come back without a firm decision after the scan, it might be that there isn’t a definitive path to take.
x
Oh no Mooney ,more stress and uncertainty.I guess if you have chemo first there may an option of not removing lymph node as the cancer will hopefully have been shrunk to nothing but would have thought they would still remove the affected node /nodes .Have you got date for MRI?
? cancer sucks !!!
Hi Mooney,
sorry to hear about the new worry. It may not be a secondary tho as things can get overlooked(rare) my primary included having 13 nodes removed and 12 were full ofcancer! Also it had spread to the fattytisdue around the nosed. I was very scared,but that was in 2001.
It may be that the chemo will shrink the cancerous node and possibly wont need surgery for it, or just a smaller ncidion. My cancer is lobular and hard to see on mammos/cts, and mri are the best scans to have for lob as it shows up well.
i know its silly for me to say dont worry, we all do, but things will get sorted. As you are understandably anxious, why not call the oncs sec or the bcn and push for an mri asap?
do keep us informed, we are all here and batting your corner, much love
Moijanxx
Thankyou lovely ladies. Have had bad day today. Bit panicky.Better now as you can see by my 2am post? Lovely surprise evening with friends and alcohol! Spoke to breast care nurse she made me feel better. Oncology requested MRI within week but won’t get results till 16th. But resigned to it. Will see onc and surgeon together. Son coming down so will be good for him to meet team and not feel so helpless.
Hope you lovely ladies are OK? Thank you for all you do here, this place is such a wonderful forum to express all the worries we don’t want to share with real family, so we dump them on our on line family instead lolx
Mooneyxxx