Meeting the Oncologist and Prepping for Surgery

Last Friday I had my initial appointment with my oncologist. She came highly recommended from two friends who also see her and from my surgeon.

The hardest part came when I was sitting with my husband, waiting, and suddenly realized that I was at "the cancer doctor". It struck me that the surgeon's office didn't bother me too much because almost everyone has surgery of some kind in their life. And the radiologist is the same guy that every woman sees every year for her mammogram, sick or not. But the oncologist is someone else. Only people with cancer see the oncologist. I know it probably sounds strange after the diagnosis and all that, but it just hit me very hard that I have CANCER.

The appointment itself went fine. She said the only unusual aspect to my situation is that there are three different types of breast cancer that were found: DCIS, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, and Tubular Carcinoma. All are treatable and the prognosis for all is quite good. She showed me the database they use to determine treatment options (it is called Adjuvant) and what the mortality rate and recurrence rates are for the various options based on my diagnosis.

Because I'm doing the double mastectomy, I've eliminated the need for radiation of the left side, so we only looked at chemo and Tamoxifen. Depending on what is found in the pathology after the mastectomy, I'll either do chemo then 5 years of Tamoxifen, or just the 5 years of Tamoxifen. The decision will be based on the extent of cancer that they find in the breast tissue and if there is any lymph node involvement. I won't see her again until October 15, because she wants me pretty well healed before we do anything else.

Today I spent much of my morning at the hospital getting registered and having my blood work and chest x-rays done. This was all very straightforward. The questions the pre-op nurse asks are pretty funny, though. "Have you ever experienced weight-loss that you did not intend?" Well, not until I was diagnosed with cancer and got too stressed out to eat! and "Have you ever experienced anxiety or depression that interfered with your life or required medication?" Not until recently!

In all fairness, the nurse was very nice and she knew what my answers would be to these questions. I asked her if she gets those answers a lot. She smiled and said she's been a nurse for a very long time.