Meet the Surgeon

January 4, 2022 – The past week has been filled with stress and anxiety waiting on this appointment. I purposely did not read much on the internet because there was so much information and I wasn’t sure what applied to me. To add to the madness, my husband and both kids had covid so none of them could accompany me to my appointment. My sister-in-law volunteered to go with me. I actually stayed at a hotel to quarantine away from my family so I could go to this appointment. We met in a consultation room with my husband on speaker phone. The surgeon explained that the mass was 1.9 cm and was Stage 1. It was negative for the estrogen and progesterone receptors but we were waiting for the HER-2 results which could take a couple weeks. She said I was a good candidate for lumpectomy but could also decide to do mastectomy if I wanted to. She said that lumpectomy with radiation had the same survival rates as mastectomy. She also wanted to do an MRI because I have dense breast tissue and this was to ensure there were no other signs of cancer. I left the appointment feeling very overwhelmed and had even more questions than before. I was thankful it was stage 1 but what do the “receptors” mean? How do I choose between lumpectomy and mastectomy? I know the surgeon answered a lot of my questions but it was hard to digest everything in that appointment. Off to Google I go….