October 4, 2021
Make a plan, and then be ready to change everything. Everyone told me this over and over again about childbirth - and I've found that it applies to cancer treatment as well.
As the timing for my lumpectomy procedure draws closer, I find myself spending more and more of my time pouring over the breast cancer treatment handbook that my oncologist and care team provided me at the beginning of my diagnosis. It really has a wealth of information and has proven to be very helpful when it comes to breaking down the situations that I am facing. I couldn't even look at it at the beginning of my journey, it felt too heavy - too real - too terrifying. But now, that I've crossed the chemo bridge and am pursuing what lies on the other side, it feels more like a comforting team member here to help me understand what I've been through and what is yet to come. And let me be frank, what is yet to come is not for the faint of heart. There are important choices that have to be made. Lumpectomy vs. mastectomy. Sentinel lymph node biopsy vs. axillary lymph node biopsy. And on and on - and you have to feel fully-confident, completely trusting the person that will be holding the knife when you go under. Because make no mistake, when you come out on the other side your life will never be the same - and in truth, your surgeon will have a huge role in determining if it's changed for the better, or God-forbid, the worse.
Since Day 1, my care team had been hand-picked by my primary care physician - whom I trust implicitly. But when it came to my surgeon she had given me 2 recommendations - both from the same surgical clinic, but one of them was a woman who, back in April, was about to head out for maternity leave. So at the time, it made my decision pretty simple - I selected the surgeon that was available. He's great, truly. He's kind and comforting, easy to talk to and was always available to me, especially with the whole infected port and the post port-removal surgery situation. But he had told me himself at our first encounter, that a good portion of his patients are GI and general surgeries, he does breast surgical oncology of course - but it wasn't a dedicated portion of his patients. And as my breast surgery loomed ever closer, I must admit I was anxious and something in my gut was telling me to talk to my oncologist about my options and get his recommendation for my surgery.
So that's exactly what I did. I set a special meeting with my oncologist and told him about my concerns, that I had been reading up on the procedure and was feeling anxious. He told me that it was good that I trusted my instincts and consulted his input - and he did in fact have a surgeon he would recommend, someone that focused the majority of their time on breast health surgery and studied under one of the greatest breast health surgeons in the state. And in true serendipitous fashion - his recommendation turned out to be the surgeon that my primary care physician had recommended back in April but that was headed out on maternity leave. She was back from leave and ready to take patients again. So I didn't hesitate, I called and set a consult with her for early October.
I could tell when she walked in the room that she was whip smart. She was kind and compassionate, straight to the point, but took the time to explain every detail of my procedure to my husband and I. She didn't pull any punches; she outlined the possible complications, the expectations for the day-of, and what to anticipate post-op. She made that twisty-sour feeling in my belly settle down and I knew after she left the room that this was my surgeon and she was going to take the best care of me. I was feeling ready to get the ball rolling and I knew that she was going to take it all the way. And thus began what would become one of my most beloved physician relationships.
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