My friend had her surgery today, and everything seems to have gone well. The surgeon said the mastectomy was without incident and the plastic surgeon said the reconstruction process is underway and they were able to do a little more than they thought they were going to be able to. I don’t know anything about the pathology, but I do know they are planning chemo.
I spoke to her tonight; she was bitching about the food and about having to ring a nurse to unhook her from the wall so she could use the bathroom (apparently her IV is not on a movable stand.) She is upbeat and chipper and anxious to go home.
ivylass - don’t take my word as gospel here, as there have been more doctors than I can count, but I believe she talked to a breast specialist, two oncologists, and a plastic surgeon. My understanding was that one of the oncologists was the surgeon who performed the mastectomy but I could very well be wrong.
As for the initial diagnosis of DCIS, this is what we found: “We generally think of cancer as a type of disease that grows out of control. DCIS, on the other hand, is not an invasive cancer. It stays inside the milk duct of the breast in which it started. It can grow to cover a small or large area of the breast. But it does not spread OUTSIDE the duct into the normal surrounding breast tissue, to the lymph nodes, or to other organs.” (from here: http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/dcis/index.jsp)
I still don’t know any specifics about her tumor or tumors, but will update when I know. In the meantime, thank you all for your good thoughts and wishes for her. And yes! STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES!