Monday, January 28, 2013

My Cancer Diagnosis - Part 4: The Surgeon’s Consultation

October 1st finally came and we consulted with the surgeon. He was a very nice man with a gentle spirit, and a lot of experience. We liked him immediately, and found out later he is a Christian, which was a super huge bonus! Thank you, Lord, for your intervention! He looked over the x-rays, then took his time with us explaining what he saw. He said there were two lesions connected to each other that he was pretty sure were just cysts. He was not concerned about those. But, what he was more concerned about was the calcifications surrounding the cysts. He said they could be something called DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ). Basically, it is a non-invasive type of cancer that remains only in the milk ducts. He said it was not something to leave alone, but not really life-threatening either.

He originally said he wanted to do a core needle biopsy, as that is usually the standard protocol. But, after we voiced our concerns over it, he said my case, because of the way it was presenting itself, would qualify for a lumpectomy and he would not refuse to do it if that is what we wanted. We were very pleased and chose the lumpectomy.

Since he said it was not truly a "life-threatening" situation, we chose to wait a few weeks to have the surgery done. October was such a busy month for us, so we chose Tuesday, November 6th - Election Day, which was over a month away. (We were able to vote early, so that worked out well for us!)

Once again, we were WAITING... Just when you think your circumstances have already produced enough patience in you, something like this comes up to test that. How much patience do you really have? I had to continue trusting that it would all work out for the best.

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