Today I had an appointment with my consultant surgeon to discuss further the results of my last surgery.
I was told that I will need to have further surgery to completely remove all DCIS (pre-cancerous change) as the margins of tissue were not clear last time. Since they have already removed quite a large proportion of my breast tissue, this would need to be a mastectomy.
The surgery is planned for after I finish chemotherapy, God willing, probably 6 weeks after the last cycle so that I am fully recovered. A reconstruction is possible at the same time. There are various options with this which they will discuss with me at a future date.
Obviously it's not nice to be told that one needs to have a mastectomy, but I did know that it was a possibility, and I can fully appreciate the need to completely eradicate all the DCIS. It is not so much of a blow as it would have seemed a few months ago.
Last week when I was given my results I was initially told the margins of tissue were all clear (i.e. all the cancer had been removed). Then the surgeon double checked my pathology report and found that actually there were still some specks of DCIS (pre-cancerous change) at the margins of the removed tissue. Because I had been given the wrong information they did a review of the whole process to find out why this had happened. The results of that review were, suprise suprise, that it was human error, the pathologist misreading or reading the wrong thing or something during their team meeting. Easily done. They are looking at ways to improve the process as a result so I hope this means my experience is less likely to happen to anyone else. I'm just glad it wasn't the lymph node biopsy result that they got wrong!
I had my MRI scan today and the first of many blood tests. I also saw the physiotherapist again about the 'cord' in my arm, a result of the lymph node biopsy, and she said - as I also thought - that I was progressing really well, so that is encouraging. The pain in my arm is very little now.
