Very Angry
Very Angry Hi there
I have just been for my 2nd year check up following my mastectomy due to high grade DCIS and luckily thinks seem ok. However for the first time through this whole thing I have got very angry with my consultant. I was telling him about how much I enjoyed the 2 day Living with Breast Cancer course and how it had helped me to put some things in perspective. He turned round and asked me why I had been on the course as I had never had Breast Cancer!!!
Has anyone else come across this? What I can’t get my head round is what did I have if it wasn’t Breast Cancer and why have I been through all the hell of a mastectomy etc then…!!!
Sorry to rant but I am so angry and feel very upset at his reaction.
Deb
understandable Deb
I think i would feel exactly the same in your position. I too had a mastectomy for high grade DCIS, and I think after going through that, then to be told what you were is disgraceful. I think I would have turned round and said to him - so why have you taken away my breast then? Did he know how angry you were?
I’m sure you were recommended to go by your Breast Care Nurse, who seem to be a lot more tuned in to what we go through than some consultants. And why would they let you go on the course if you weren’t eligible?
Next month I will be having my first mammogram on the other breast following my diagnosis (two years) and I know I will be really worried about what they find.
I’m so pleased everything is OK for you, that’s the important thing really. Just put it down to ignorant men with no empathy.
best wishes
Anne
Hi Deb Hi Deb,
Don’t be too angry.
Did you have breast cancer cells present in your breast? Well, the answer is yes. Have you got breast cancer now? The answer is very probably no. It was was caught at a very early stage before breast cancer cells had ‘escaped’ from the milk duct(s). In all likelihood all the breast cancer cells were removed with your breast.
Your consultant probably could do with a course in communication. He/she doesn’t want you to go to courses on living with breast cancer because he/she doesn’t think you still have breast cancer. Isn’t that nice to know.
Of course no one can ever be totally sure but the statistics are definitely on your side.
Should you have had a mastectomy? The answer is yes. Those cells would have multiplied, become more aggressive and would have eventually escaped into your lymph nodes and your blood stream and travelled to distant sites in your body. I assume that you had to have a mastectomy rather than a lumpectomy because the DCIS was in more than one place in the breast or too near the margins of your breast. No one wanted to take chances and leave a few cells behind.
I hope that this is useful.
With best wishes,
Sue
newly diagnosed with DCIS don’t know what to do I have recently been diagnosed with high grade DCIS, booked in for lumpectomy on Tuesday next week don’t know wether I am doing the wright thing by not just having a mastectomy now and be done with it.
The more info I read the more confused I become,what are the chances it has already spread feeling very fragile mentally at the moment , need some advice from someone who has experienced same dilema.
Thanks
june
Dear Deb
I am sorry to hear that you GP does not feel that you had cancer. There are many practitioners that feel DCIS is not cancer which is rubbish. I was told that there is no such thing as pre-cancer its either cancer or it isn’t and I was told DCIS is. There are different types of DCIS and the treatment is dependent on the grading.
Don’t take his comments on board as sometimes its their lack of knowledge as they are GP’s - ‘general’ practitioners and as my GP pointed out that he does not know everything and if I find out something and come back to him he is quite willing to help me out if he can.
Take Care
Lorraine
Useful information HI all
I thought you might like to know that this site has more information on DCIS at
breastcancercare.org.uk
//content.php?page_id=998
Best wishes
Host
Breast Cancer Care
Dear Deb
Following on from my previous message. There is a link attached about whether DCIS is really cancer - which it is but it explains all about it.
breastcancer.org/dcis_ductal_carcinoma_in_situ.html#really
Lorraine