Plan Is Evolving!

Here are the notes my youngest daughter, Monica, took yesterday:

7/25/11

Notes From Breast Surgeon in Bedford: 

·         No lumpectomy, definitely mastectomy for left breast

·         Treat the local disease by performing a mastectomy on left breast

·         Look at the risks…see if the cancer is somewhere else…use the MRI to determine that.

·         Grade tells about the cells dividing and how normal they are – Mom = Grade 2

·         Stage tells how big it is.  This surgeon thinks maybe stage two and it is 5 cm.

·         Will need the bone scan to see if it has spread to the bones.  The most common place to spread is the bones; however she didn’t think that it had.

·         Will also need a cat scan to see if it has spread other places, i.e. lungs and liver.

·         Didn’t feel it in the lymph nodes but the data from the path reports and MRI will help show if it has spread

·         Mom might need anti-estrogen meds

·         Mom will probably need chemo – it depends on the lymph nodes and receptors

o        4-6 treatments

o        Once every three weeks

o        She recommends either oncologists at either the  Bedford or Arlington South Texas Oncology Centers.

·          The recommended plastic surgeon for breast reconstruction offices out of Fort Worth, Southlake, and Keller. The mastectomies and the  beginning of reconstruction are done at the same time.

·         If the MRI, which is to be done in a few days in Mansfield, looks normal, mom doesn’t have to do the double mastectomy, however, with breast cancer there is a 10% chance cancer will show up in the other breast over the next ten years.  With lobular cancer, the risk is even higher. 

·         If mom didn’t choose the double mastectomy, then she would still have to have a lift and reduction so the breasts match.  Double mastectomies will probably be done since it is easier to go ahead and alleviate worries of future occurrence

·         The tissue expanders are the most common, easiest, and safest.

·         After the double mastectomy, the surgeon would leave the skin flaps.

·         The plastic surgeon would insert an empty implant under the muscle.

·         Over the next two to three surgeries, the surgeon would stretch it out with saline, eventually take it out and put in a new implant, and then do the nipple reconstruction.

·         Mom will probably not need radiation but we won’t know for sure until we have all of the data back from the tests.

·         Mom will spend 2 nights in the hospital and then heal at home with drainage tubes for ten days to two weeks.  She will not be able to raise her arms during this time so everything from the shelves and cabinets at home will be brought down to reachable waist level before the surgery.