Think of you often...sending thoughts and prayers your way, Beth. In reading your one post about your husbands "Pollyanna" attitude...i'm sure you know that that attitude is all for you. He's gotta be suffering with and for you, as well. To better and happier days ahead!!
Thanks, Sunny. He's my rock and I don't know how I'd navigate this mess without him, or my sweet kids. I try to do all my crying in the bathtub so he thinks I have my "chin up!"
I've been obsessing over my assigned surgeon again (y'all might remember the "young" one from earlier in the thread). I'm still wondering if she is the best choice or if I should insist on a more experienced doctor. There will also be a plastic surgeon who will do the lymph node bypass and close the surgical wound for the smoothest scar... I hope. This entire thing is making me so anxious again; why does everything to do with cancer have to be so freakin' hard??? I just want them to get ALL the cancer and not make me into some circus freak in the meantime; is that too much to ask?
Beth, I believe any doctor you have wants to give you what you mentioned in the last paragraph. Your biggest concern is if they have the skills to do that. So I can understand your anxiety, the only thing you might want to try is ask one of the nurses if it was them who would they choose to performed the procedure. My gut and heart tell me any doctor you choose will give you acceptable results. My prayers are with you stay positive.
I think that ability is more important than age, @Beth Gallagher , and the important thing is for you to have confidence in your doctor. I think that I might have mentioned before, the doctor who has done my heart surgeries looks like a happy teenage kid, and reminds me of my grandson; but he is the head of electrophysiology for the whole Huntsville Heart Center and Hospital System, and he is an expert at what he does.
While experience is important, it is also good to think about an older experienced doctor might still be stuck on outdated methods. With all the new robot surgery, I think a young to middle-aged surgeon is the best choice. A surgeon with 100 successful surgeries might be a better choice than one that has 1000 surgeries with 100 unsuccessful. I like to see a humble but confident surgeon that is versed in the latest technology.
Sorry your going thru this and I agree about finding an older oncologist. But also would check around and be very involved in your care.Doctors are human too ,food ones and not so good ones.
I'm sure that's true in some cases, but the original surgeon I was assigned is generally considered world-class in the field of breast oncology surgery and he's not exactly elderly. This is Dr. Lucci... he sports that "nutty professor" look. For some reason they swapped him out and assigned me Dr. Sun, but I suppose the "good news" is that he is her mentor and she had a 2-year residency under his tutelage. Hopefully she is up to speed. As for humble.... not sure surgeons fit into that group.
Thanks, Marie. I'm being treated at MD Anderson and have a "team" of doctors: Medical Oncologist who has managed my chemo, scans, and other care; Surgical Oncologist who will perform the mastectomy and the subject of this latest anxiety; Plastic Surgeon to close the surgical wound and perform a microsurgery on the lymph channels; Radiation Oncologist who will be handling radiation treatment after surgery. I have been very happy with my Medical Oncologist; he is considered an expert in the field of IBC and is head of the IBC clinic at MDA. I've been in treatment since January and will have surgery in August. I am involved in my treatment, but there is a "standard of care" at MDA and the protocol for inflammatory breast cancer is pretty much set in stone.
Thanks again, Tony. I'm just nervous about the whole thing so I obsess about details. I have read many times that a mastectomy is actually a "simple" surgical procedure but it isn't simple from where I'm sitting.
While the mastectomy surgery is usually pretty straight forward...your lymph node removal of three levels is a little more complicated. Yet at MD Anderson I'm sure you can have confidence in knowing your Surgeon knows what he/she is doing and wants the best outcome possible for you...just as you do. May God fill you with His peace Beth and take away any anxiety or fear you may be carrying.
The clock is ticking on the surgery, so my anxiety will be ramping up. I discussed my surgeon with the Nurse Practitioner today; she has confidence in my surgeon but advised me to discuss the situation with an MDA Patient Advocate. I'm not sure I want to open that can o'worms at this point. True-to-form, I'm already reading about radiation treatment and all the possible side-effects from that. Naturally IBC requires higher levels of radiation for longer periods than "normal" breast cancer. I am very concerned that the lymph nodes above my collarbone will be radiated, which causes issues with a lot of patients. (One woman on the BC forum had a blood clot in her carotid artery that caused a stroke, paralyzing her right side for several months... eeek.) At once internet search engines are both helpful and terrifying.