Just to put here what I put in an email to a bunch of friends to try and straighten things out:
We found the lump on March 1st and because of an intervening vacation, could not investigate further until the 15th of March. On the 15th we saw a Dr. and he sent us to get a mammogram on the 16th.
The mammogram showed an 8cm by 3cm mass that is very deep in the left breast. They also found something irritated in the left armpit that everyone is saying is a lymphnode. The size and nature of the mass make it a type 5, by mammogram and sonogram standards of abnormality. 5 being the most suspicious or abnormal. Our mutual friend misunderstood and thought we'd said stage 5 cancer. Since he has cancer and is familiar with the stages of cancer, not the mammogram terminology, it's understandable that he might come to this erroneous conclusion (but, I'm still not letting him off the hook... much).
Our Dr. said that with a mass of this nature you go straight to surgery and sent us to a surgeon he trusts. We saw the Surgeon on the 20th, which just happens to be my wife's 40th birthday. After examining my wife, he said that he'd prefer to do a biopsy and go from there rather than charging ahead with only what he saw on the mammogram and sonogramam, as well as what he was able to determine from his own examination.
Me? I'm taking hope from this. It's my feeling that if the information he had available told him this was a critical situation, then we'd be in the hospital now rather than waiting for a biopsy and it's results. That said, I don't want to trivialize the seriousness of the situation.
The biopsy is scheduled for Wednesday March 22nd in the morning at 9:30. From what our first Dr. said, we don't expect to know results until Friday March 24th.
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timeasmymeasure
Setting the record straight
Date: 2006-03-21 09:53 pm (UTC)We found the lump on March 1st and because of an intervening vacation, could not investigate further until the 15th of March. On the 15th we saw a Dr. and he sent us to get a mammogram on the 16th.
The mammogram showed an 8cm by 3cm mass that is very deep in the left breast. They also found something irritated in the left armpit that everyone is saying is a lymphnode. The size and nature of the mass make it a type 5, by mammogram and sonogram standards of abnormality. 5 being the most suspicious or abnormal. Our mutual friend misunderstood and thought we'd said stage 5 cancer. Since he has cancer and is familiar with the stages of cancer, not the mammogram terminology, it's understandable that he might come to this erroneous conclusion (but, I'm still not letting him off the hook... much).
Our Dr. said that with a mass of this nature you go straight to surgery and sent us to a surgeon he trusts. We saw the Surgeon on the 20th, which just happens to be my wife's 40th birthday. After examining my wife, he said that he'd prefer to do a biopsy and go from there rather than charging ahead with only what he saw on the mammogram and sonogramam, as well as what he was able to determine from his own examination.
Me? I'm taking hope from this. It's my feeling that if the information he had available told him this was a critical situation, then we'd be in the hospital now rather than waiting for a biopsy and it's results. That said, I don't want to trivialize the seriousness of the situation.
The biopsy is scheduled for Wednesday March 22nd in the morning at 9:30. From what our first Dr. said, we don't expect to know results until Friday March 24th.