First Appointment: Medical Oncology

Today I went to meet my medical oncologist for the first time. The goal was to review the pathology report of my bilateral mastectomy of last week. In that surgery 15 nodes were also removed and biopsied after the sentinel node tested positive for cancer once the breasts were removed.

I was prepared by my oncology surgeon. Over the past month she also stayed hopeful that my breast cancer would not have spread to my lymph nodes. All the imaging and testing pointed to a low chance of having cancer in the nodes, too. Of course the gold standard is the actual testing of the nodes during the mastectomy. She did tell us if cancer is there, too, it's almost a guarantee for chemo due to my many factors including age --44--, my aggressive and invasive tumor size (bigger than a quarter), my non invasive cancer size (almost 3 quarter coins size), and whether the lymphatic are affected or not. Cancer survivors at the two meetings I attended echoed these thoughts.

My case is somewhat complex in that they really didnt expect cancer to have invaded other regions due to my imaging and testing results. My medical oncologist and cancer surgeon are presenting my case to a tumor board for second opinions and discussion. So far The course being recommended for me is 4 rounds. This means for 4 months I'll go in to the clinic for a chemo infusion designed for me. They said my hair will fall out at around day 10-- which makes this by the end of March. Honestly this doesn't bother me because I'm focussed on staying alive and the love of family and friends. I'm grateful for positive thoughts, positive energy sent my way, and prayers.

Me at the oncologist office before the appointment: