The Oncologist office finally called me and said they had a cancellation today if I wanted to come in. Adam decided that he wanted to go with me to see what the doctor had to say.
The Sugar Debate
The first thing the doctor asked me was, “What have you done since you found the lump?” I told him, “I changed my diet drastically and cut out sugar and any foods that turn to sugar right away.” Then I also told him how I’ve been fasting to rid my body of sugar and other benefits of fasting. He replied, “Oh cutting sugar won’t do anything. Eat all the sugar you want. You can try and starve it, that will kill the cancer and kill you too.” I was thinking WHAT??? Whoever died from cutting out their sugar and fasting safely for a few days??
Gown Up
He had me dress in a gown and gave me a breast exam, which I thought was weird because he already had the images. Why did I need a breast exam? It was still very tender from the biopsy, so I wasn’t very appreciative of the touching. There was a large, 2″ lump that kept getting larger after the biopsy, pretty sure caused by the biopsy that I pointed out to him, since he was there. He said is was caused by the biopsy and wasn’t anything to worry about. He felt the lump I found, above the nipple, but he couldn’t locate the lymph.
The Education Course
I changed back and then I received an hour education course. He told me that I have stage 2B, which means the tumor is either: between 2 and 5 centimeters in size, and small clusters of breast cancer cells are found in the lymph nodes; the tumor is between 2 and 5 centimeters in size, and cancer has spread to 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes or to the lymph nodes near the breastbone; or the tumor is larger than 5 centimeters, and cancer has not spread to the lymph nodes.
Mine is the third, the tumor is between 2 and 5 centimeters in size and cancer has spread to 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes.
The lump I found measures 2.2cm and is classified as DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma in Situ) because it is a noninvasive condition referring to abnormal cells in the lining of the breast duct that have not spread to other tissues. It can spread, but right now, it is contained.
The lymph lump measures 1.5cm and he said could spread if it is not spreading already. This is classified as invasive. This means the cancer has grown beyond its original location into surrounding normal breast tissue or lymph nodes and has the potential to spread to other parts of the body.
HER2 and Estrogen Receptors
I have the estrogen hormone receptor and the HER2 receptor.
- Hormone receptor-positive. Breast cancers expressing estrogen receptors (ER) are called “hormone receptor-positive.” These receptors are proteins found in cells. Tumors that have estrogen receptors are called “ER-positive.” These cancers may depend on the hormones estrogen to grow.
- HER2-positive. About 15% to 20% of breast cancers depend on the gene called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) to grow. These cancers are called “HER2-positive” and have many copies of the HER2 gene or high levels of the HER2 protein. These proteins are also called “receptors.” The HER2 gene makes the HER2 protein, which is found on the cancer cells and is important for tumor cell growth. HER2-positive breast cancers grow more quickly.
Because I have the HER2, he classified the grade as 3 which means the cancer cells that look abnormal may grow or spread more aggressively.
Before he erased that part of the whiteboard, he asked, “Aren’t you going to take a picture?” I said, “No, I’m good.” He said, “Well, that’s why I write it all down.” What a weird thing to say.
Treatment Recommendation
The doctor then wrote down on the white board his recommended treatment.
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy
- Taxotere
- Cytoxan – these 2 are neolasta chemo
- Herceptin – the antibody for HER2
- Then Surgery
He told me he wanted me back in first thing tomorrow to stick a port, the size of a large man’s ring, into my chest. They would then run a tube, under the skin, to the breast to feed the chemo to the lumps, then run a tube to my heart for another drug to prevent the the HER2 drug, Herceptin, from damaging my heart.
I would have to do the chemo and antibody drugs for 6 cycles – every 3 weeks. Total of 18 weeks. I would have to have EKG’s every cycle to make sure the drugs were not damaging my heart. Then I’d have to do the heart IV medicine keeping the port in for another year. That port would have to stay in my chest for a year and 18 weeks! ~Sign me up!
Then he said he would schedule surgery for me to remove all my breast tissue – double mastectomy – and my ovaries, so I didn’t ever have to worry about breast cancer again.
He ordered a PET scan and said he wanted to get the port in me ASAP before the scan. If I did do a PET scan, which is drinking a cocktail full of radioactive sugar, and being radiated with the equivalent of 3000 dental x-rays, I’d want those results before I started any treatment!
After telling me all of that, he tried to scare me into doing the chemo cocktail. If I do this treatment, it will extend my life 7 more years.
WHAT??? After all of that, it just extends my life?? It won’t cure it?? Damage the hell out of my body, and hope I make it 7 more years?? He wouldn’t tell me how much time I had if I did nothing and I didn’t ask because no one but me will dictate how long I live.
I was thinking, “Why wouldn’t you schedule surgery first and remove these 2 lumps right now? Why all the chemo bullshit? – Money. Wouldn’t you think with 2 lumps that are containing the cancer be surgically removed first??? Then the scan to see if it spread, then the chemo if it did spread. Seems so ass-backwards to me.
I told him I’d think about it. He didn’t like that answer and went on and on about how I need to do this now because the cancer is so aggressive. I kept with my answer then he finally gave in and told us to wait for the scheduler.
Scheduling
We’d been there 2 1/2 hours. I was so done and didn’t want to wait for the scheduler, for I wasn’t coming back. I should have just walked out at that point. The scheduler seemed to take forever. I was so done. The scheduler finally came in and she handed me a paper with all my appointments, already scheduled, dates, times, everything on there!! I said, “Wait, I don’t want to schedule anything right now.” She said, “Oh, just call in and reschedule.” I told her, “I don’t want to call in. You are right here. Why can’t you just cancel all of this and I’ll call in when I’m ready.” She said, “It’s easy, just call me to cancel.” “But you are RIGHT HERE!” She absolutely refused to cancel those appointments!
I was so SO done. I ripped the paper out of her hand and stomped out of the room. We finally left and Adam said, “That felt like we were in a Timeshare presentation, and they weren’t going to let us out of there until we buy into the treatment plan!” I agreed it was a huge sales pitch and there was no saying ‘NO!’
