Met the surgeon. I liked her. She talked to us for over an hour along with examining the girls. She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. But, what she did show me is that she is well organized, can explain things well and is compassionate. It was a CYA talk really. She is going to talk with my internist and a few other people involved and I guess they are going to come up with a suggestion for an oncologist for me to see next. I don't know what my HER-2 neu results are yet. That is a particular type of breast cancer that is extremely aggressive. Signs are pointing that it is most likely positive. Once upon a time that was pretty much a death sentence but, they have since developed a med that is highly effective against it. Why I'm waiting on it is I'm seriously considering doing neo adjuvant chemo. Which is having chemo before surgery. I brought it up and the surgeon said if the HER came back positive she thought I should go that route. Here is my thought process. I'm going to have chemo. There's no getting out of it. Even if the HER is negative because my cancer is high grade and aggressive and chemo works so well with that type of cancer. So having the chemo before surgery does this for the oncologist. It gives them a really good idea of how your cancer is going to respond to the chemo. If the tumor shrinks or even disappears then we know that its really effective. The surgeon doesn't have to be as aggressive. There is less guess work after surgery when you have more chemo (yea there will be more) to know if its working. Traditionally, its surgery and then chemo with tests to indicate if the chemo is working or not but those test are not as clear cut as seeing the effects its having on the tumor. I feel I might as well use this damned tumor towards my advantage. If I have to go through chemo why not do it when it can tell more info and its less of a guessing game as to if its working or not. This is very new. They do know that if the tumor disappears from the chemo (the surgeon still needs to remove the site in which the tumor started) then the survival rate goes through the roof like well over 90%. Why not go for a shot of going through surgery and going through more rounds of chemo after know you got those odds on your side. Any way I'm seriously thinking this is my route. Even if the HER is negative. I have to discuss this with the oncologist but, if that damned tumor can be put to some good use, why not?
The flip side is if it shrinks the tumor but, doesn't get rid of it, it doesn't change the prognosis from what it was if I had the surgery first and then the chemo. In other words it won't hurt to do the chemo first and then surgery second. Yea surgery after chemo is a scary thought but, you wait a month to regain immune system. And I'm going to feel crappy after surgery anyway. I have to read more about it. But, that's it so far.
Other news, got my MRI back and at least it didn't show any new bad stuff! They couldn't detect anything in my lymph nodes which is a good thing. Now I'm not out of the woods as they will be biopsying those during surgery so there could be microscopic critters in there but, nothing obvious is always good. Less of a chance that this stuff has spread to another part of my body. No guarantee but, puts the odds more on my side. And I need all the ones I can get. Yea I had myself ready for the MRI to find the cancer was everywhere including the moon. Its amazing at how much relief you can get from Oh thank God its not as bad as it could be. Counting blessings here.
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