Done with double mastectomy and drains were out as of yesterday so really healing up quite well at a week and half out. Met with the surgeon yesterday to go over pathology report and I for whatever reason always get freaked out discussing anything related to my cancer with professionals. Even if a lot of it is good. I overthink and essentially decide I am going to die. So I’m looking for perspective and information. No cancer in lymph nodes or lymphatic system detected which I know is great. But the IDC tumor was 32mm. The “area of concern” was originally 36mm but most of that they thought would be DCIS which doesn’t go into staging and I was counting on that I guess you could say. Well the area of concern ended up being significantly smaller which was good, but all IDC which is not good. So my surgeon said I was stage 2B. But with the new staging system which I thought everyone followed I hit stage 1B (ER/PR positive, node negative, T2 tumor, HER2 negative, and grade 3). Does it matter? Am I still considered early stage with local spread? And will only my oncotype score go into chemo need? Anyway I sent these questions by e-mail to my oncologist and she said she’ll be glad to talk about it at my next appointment which is almost two weeks from now. That’s a lot of time to sit on my butt and ponder my demise. Can anyone shed some info? Thank you all so much!
Hi Kay
All I can say is you are a LONG way from any kind of demise. I can’t comment on treatments but, if you’re offered chemo, take it. It’s not nice but it’s manageable. You may think 2 or 3% difference isn’t worth it but statistics are so misleading and you might be the person it makes 90% difference to.
There is a lot in what you have written that points to a good outcome so spend this time working on that anxiety and morbid thoughts. I’m Stage 4 Triple Negative and even I don’t think about the endgame - I just focus on now. I attribute that to my daily meditation (euphemism) using a video by Progressive Hypnosis, free on YouTube. In fact, I’m off to do it now.
Best of luck xx