I had a right mastectomy a couple of weeks ago and go to see my consultant on the 21st to get the results. I’m trying to put together a list of questionsand just don’t know what to ask. At the moment I have no clue what I’m going to be told, or what I should be asking once I get the results. If there’s anyone who’s been more organised than me (and I’m sure that’spretty much everyone), could you let me know the questions that you asked that were useful to you to help you understand the cancer, the recommended treatments, and so on.
Thanks, everyone, in advance for your help and advice!
(On a positive note, just seen my practice nurse who has said the scar has healed well and is one of the nicest and neatest she’s ever seen!)
You should get the results of your surgery - they should tell you the size of the lump, what grade it was (1, 2, or 3, 3 being the most agressive & most likely to spread), whether any cancer was found in any of your lymph nodes (and how many nodes involved) and if there are any signs of vascular invasion - this is if there are any signs of cancer in the blood vessels, as cancer can spread either via the lymph nodes or via the blood stream.
You should also be told if your cancer is hormone positive or not - if yes, you would be suitable for tamoxifen or arimidex. You may not find out if you are Her2+ yet (ie suitable for herceptin), as that test can take a few weeks to get results.
My main advice would be to take someone with you, as it can be very difficult to take it all in if the news is bad (I think I heard that it was in my lymph nodes & went into shock) and to take a notebook with your questions in and to write down the details. You can then add to this notebook as time goes on.
Then they will tell you what further treatment they recommend - this could be chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone treatment (ie tamoxifen etc) - this will all depend on your surgery results, how agressive the cancer is, your age (the younger you are the more they tend to throw at you).
If you have chemotherapy or radiotherapy you will get a planning appointment first, when they will go through it all in detail, and you can ask further questions.
You can also ask for a copy of your report ,with most of the details in it that RoadRunner talks about above.
This is a hint that I got off here, before I went along for my results, and its proved really useful.
I am sorry you have had to post here, I posted exactly the same question so I know how scarey is it.
I have had so much support from this site. the best response I got is what Magsi above says, ask for a copy of your report, this way you can analyse and research when you are in a calmer state of mind. I also recorded my appointment with my onc, that way again once at home I could analyse
If you go to the home page of this site and type pathology in the search bar, you will come to a page that lists “What questions to ask” and also “understanding your pathology report”