No Treatment Plan Yet

Yesterday I was scheduled to meet with both the surgeon and oncologist. It is a long story and I know I need to record it, because it was another one of those "It Only Happens to Tina" things.

Basically, the surgeon was running late and forgot about me. I had been taken to the an exam room and forgotten. People went home, the office closed..... when she did see me it was to say that I'd have to reschedule because I was never on her list of appointments. Hogwash. How did I end up making it thru check in, asked for a co-pay, my vitals taken, and eventually left in the exam room? I don't remember what I said. At that moment, I felt exhausted and drained.

I think I said, "But that means it will be two or three-weeks longer before I can begin treatment and it has already been twelve-weeks."

She said she hadn't seen the films from all of the testing, but she had glanced over the written reports and she was going to recommend I start with chemo, because she would rather shrink the tumor before surgery. She said, "You really don't want to disfigure your breast unnecessarily, do you?"

I answered that I didn't want to have cancer, but would do what I had to to get rid of it.

Then she made a comment that went over my head at the time, but has come back to haunt me. It was something about from personal experience recently she had operated at the wrong time and would rather not do that again. HUH? Maybe..... I should find a different surgeon. She repeated that i would have to reschedule, but she had already decided she did not want to operate yet.

I asked how she could know that without doing an exam. So, she asked me to get on the examining table. I said, "Without changing?" Sure, just pul your top up. So, I did as asked. She left me sitting up, she felt, she probbed, she said the tumor was about 2.5 centimeters and the one lymph node was very small.

The other doctor walked in right then. They had a discussion and the surgeon left. The oncologist went over the results of all the procedures and she said she had been worried they would not be as good as they were, but the cancer has not spread yet and my heart is strong enough to handle chemo. She examined me. We discussed chemo. I met the nurse practitioner who is her assistant. The oncologist said they would reschedule the surgeon, because she felt the tumor was closer to 4.0 centimeters and that she felt more than one lymph node was involved and that they were quite swollen and matted together.

So again, I am back to waiting. I must see the surgeon before anything else can be done.

I suppose if we start chemo first, the soonest the port can be put in will be in about three weeks with chemo starting on February 10th.