Sorry to hear your news! Sending healing thoughts your way.
I have no experience with BC, so no advice, but I am wishing you minimal problems with this and a speedy recovery. It must be scary.
Best wishes.
My mother was diagnosed in '98. The doctors recommended a mastectomy with reconstruction. She argued with the insurance company for a while, but they finally agreed to pay for a double mastectomy - basically, she had both breasts removed and reconstructed.
Her theory was that she was at a higher risk of developing breast cancer in the other breast, and might as well get it over with all at once.
After the surgery, the biopsy revealed the start of breast cancer in the ‘clean’ breast. So in her case, it turned out to be a smart choice.
She’s still alive and doing well.
-D/a
We’re sorry to know of this, Rhane and Czar and wish for good news tomorrow!
Bill and Dondra
It’s rough news, and I’m sorry for everyone involved. But, as others in the thread have said, treatment has come a long way! I’ve gone through treatments for two different cancers (non-Hodgkins lymphoma and prostate), and I’m healthy and cancer-free.
Talking to doctors with different treatment specialties is DEFINITELY the way to go. Before I made a decision on treatment for my prostate cancer, I talked to the doctor (who is a surgeon and recommended robotically-assisted surgery), and then talked to a good friend who is a retired radiology chief of staff, and then talked to some friends and family members who had dealt with it. That gave me enough information to make an informed decision (my decision was “grab your knives and cut this stuff out of my body NOW”).
Good luck, good wishes, and if you need anything, Czarcasm, you have my phone number. Call it. Really.
Well I found out that I have Stage 2 cancer and I have 2 options after surgery. If the cancer has not spread to the lymph nodes all I will need to do is radiation therapy, anti estrogen tablets and diet. If it has spread that means kemotherapy and all the side effects.:eek:
Now with option 1, I can go for a masectomy with reconstrution surgery, it will include a tummy tuck:D, or option 2 breast reduction. They will remove the lymph nodes and surounding tissue and then to make everything symetrical the will remove some fat from the other breast thefore turning my size 46c breasts into maybe a size 36c:D. So anyway you look at it I’ll get a boob job.
At the risk of sounding callous, it could be worse. You definitely have a good chance with this. I saw on the local news the other day where you can buy these head wrap things that cool the scalp way down, preventing hair loss from chemotherapy. It’s $500/month and not covered by insurance, but the women shown said that it really helped them deal with their cancers to not lose their hair. Something to think about, perhaps. And tummy tuck?! Does that come with, or will you just be adding it on? Because that’s awesome.
Sounds like they caught it pretty early and you have some good options. You may even end up with a hardcore tattoo. As usual, there’s an appropriate XKCD:
Don’t let anything hold you back!
And with luck, she won’t even have to deal with that. I’m glad you have some options, Rahne McCloud, and I hope things break in the best possible way here. I third (or whatever) the recommendation that you get additional opinions if you have any doubts or concerns about your treatment or the people who are supposed to give it. Best wishes to you and Czarcasm.
If you do end up needing chemo, keep in mind that it is NOT a guarantee that you will lose your hair with chemo. Hair loss is a side effect of certain chemo drugs, but not all of them. My mother unfortunately had more chemo than the average person (once for breast cancer, and years later a number of rounds of chemo for terminal ovarian cancer). She only lost her hair during the time she was on one particular chemo drug for the ovarian cancer. Otherwise, she tolerated chemo pretty well. Some people are more sensitive to side effects from chemo than others are.
Doctors have also gotten much better at treating side effects from chemo these days, so it’s really not as scary as it might seem.
Best wishes to you!
ACOR has lots of useful information, and you can find a listserv focusing on your specific cancer diagnosis. You can expand and support your team using the specific board for your cancer.
When it looked like my gf was going to have chemo and loose her hair, I offered to shave bald to match. It was a relief that her cancer did not end up needing chemotherapy, but by then I had psyched myself up to go bald.
My sister’s diagnosis was the same five years ago. She later went and had the second breast taken prophylacticly so she didn’t have to deal with the worry.
It will be a hard year…but with luck and good care with your diagnosis, it should be done in a year. May you have plenty of both.
(If you have reconstruction, you can get tattoos where the nipples were. I suggest smiley faces or ying yangs…my sister went with nipple looking tattoos 
So boring. )
It looks like the nipple will have to be rebuilt because of the location of the growth. Do you think it’s possible to have the new one pre-pierced?
I was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2007, and am in remission. I went bald for about six months, which really didn’t bother me as much as I thought I would have, and that was about the worst of the side-effects. It seems a lot of us here have had experience with chemo, so this is a great place to ask questions.
I feel for you, we all feel for you, hoping that things go well for the future.
Sending warm thoughts your way .
Not easy to hear this news but now you know and knowledge is power and you can move forward. You sounds like you have some great attitude going on and when you’re kicking cancer’s ass that’s half the battle won right there.
Y’all are in my thoughts and prayers. Please keep us informed of the progress on your journey. You have people here supporting you.
This is very true. It varies wildly from one person to the next. I didn’t like the idea of waking up in the morning with clumps of hair on my pillow, so when I first started losing hair, I had my daughter shave my head. Interestingly, my head stayed bald throughout chemo, but I never lost my mustache. It thinned out quite a bit, but didn’t go away.
I met with my team of Doctors. The plastic surgeon took pix of my girls and he also gave me a time line of when things will proceed when I have my surgery scheduled. First is removing the lump, about an hour, hour and a half. Then he will do his miracle work to make the girls even and perky, that will be about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Next up is a 4-6 week recovery, followed by 5-6 weeks of radiation treatment. Last but not least after 6 months a new nipple.:eek:
So tomorrow I will be calling my breast surgeon to schedule my surgery. 
I hope it will be sometime in the next month. Czarcasm is so not looking foward to my recovery time, :dubious: but I’m sure he will like the results when all is said and done. 
My Mom didn’t have to do the radiation part…but I remember after the double mastectomy/reconstruction, she was really limited in range of motion for her arms. She couldn’t reach over her head…or even close. You’ll want to prepare your house so are you aren’t totally dependent on Czarcasm.
Spend some time between now and then and examine where things are kept, and what you use. Figure out what you want to be able to do yourself, and set it up. For instance, if you normally get a glass from the cabinet when you want a drink of water, think about leaving a glass on the counter.
Good luck!
-D/a