Hi, I’m new to the discussion part here but I wanted to try and find others in my situation to get your opinion. I’m feeling so confused about waht my surgeon has said (and not said)
Please bear with me for the story. I know it’s a long one!
After I found my lump, I had ultrasound, core needle biopsy and mammogram etc etc. The surgeon said I have got a fibroadenoma.
I had done my research before I had gone back to see her so I already knew what that was and I was surprised when she said it had to come out. Everything I found suggested that 3cm or under could be left in and monitored. They do not ‘change’ into cancer.
I’m 36yrs old by the way and I’ve read that surgeons like to remove this kind of lump after 35 yrs old (depite evidence that points to most fibroadenomas shrinking over the years/possibly disappearing altogether, hence why it’s a ‘young woman’s lump’).
I told the surgeon at the results appointment that I wasn’t keen on surgery and I wanted to discuss the option of mammetone removal/cryoablation etc so I could have less invasive removal and no general aneasthetic but I didn’t get the chance as she just slammed shut my folder, pushed it away from her and said “OK, I’ll tell your GP you don’t want surgery. Thank you for coming”.
Only after me trying to talk more about it did we decide to put me on the waiting list for removal “incase it turns cellular”. That was basically the conversation. I’m still no wiser as to what “go cellular” was meant to mean.
She wrote to my GP to say it was a “fibroepithelial lesion in keeping with a fibroadenoma” which now I have looked again could actually mean it is possibly a benign phyllodes tumour.
Yet she didnt tell me this. That phrase doesnt necessarily actually mean fibroadenoma - it just means it resembles one.
I did a lot of thinking and spoke to my GP and we decided I needed to talk to her again for more information as he was none the wiser either.
I saw her the other week and then -and only then- did she tell me that she didnt like the look of it and that it “wasn’t typical” and was “irregular”. She could have told me that before!
But then she also said that the biopsy sample was “very likely” to be a true idea of what the rest of the lump was - a fibroadenoma! When I asked her what “not typical” and “irregular” meant, she just sighed and said that her advise was to have it removed because of it’s size.
She said that it being irregular wasn’t necessarily actually a problem but still advised removal anyway.
I asked about recurring rates for fibroadenomal removal and she said it’s very very rare which is not what I have read at all. She said there’s a chance it will change. And yet again, that’s not what is written about fibroadenomas anywhere! In fact, just the opposite!
I requested to be taken off the waiting list just because I now feel so confused what the best thing is to do and I don’t want to have unneccessary surgery.
She agreed to monitor by ultrasound in 6mths time. I agreed that any change in size/shape/appearance etc that I will have it excised.
It is obviously not THAT urgent to remove it if she was:
a) prepared to not discuss it with me at the start at all. If I had said nothing, she would have written to my GP and given me no information at all and I wouldn’t have been monitored at all.
b) prepared to agree to monitor me later in 6mths
Sorry it’s a long one but it’s bothering me so much and I can’t get straight answers anywhere.
Has anyone else had this and what did you do?
Did you leave it in? Has it been OK?
She has been so rude she has out me off having anything to do with her. I trust her as a doctor and a surgeon but I didn’t feel comfortable with her and I don’t believe that doctors shouldn’t be questioned. They are there to diagnose and answer questions that let us make an ‘informed choice’. For me she hasn’t done any of that for me.
I AM SO SO grateful of course that I don’t have anything malignant. I KNOW this is benign and hardly life-threatening so feel free to tell me to get a grip. I’m a big girl. I can take it. I’m just not convinced that she has given me enough information/ right information. Do I believe the information on this website and their breast care nurse I spoke to or my surgeon?