Breast Cancer update

We have met with a couple Oncologists. We first thought it would be nice to go through IMC in Murray, close by both our parents, so we met with a Doctor there. Man it was a lot of information.  We first met with a surgeon and talked through my options. Single or double mastectomy? or I could do a lumpectomy? I thought for a moment that I should just do a mastectomy, to get rid of the whole breast, but once I vocalized it I no longer wanted that option. The reality of cutting off my breasts was a little much. We were then leaning toward a lumpectomy. 

Next we met with an Oncologist to talk more about the type of cancer. She was Indian and had a thick accent and spoke a little fast and it was all going over my head! She talked about the tumor being HER2 positive or negative and it being hormone positive or negative and how the size of the tumor impacts whether you do surgery first or chemo treatment and then surgery and then before we had time to think she was scheduling my port placement and we left a tad overwhelmed. Soooo we sat on it a couple days and then decided to try someone closer to us. My neighbor Kate had just gone through treatment for Non-hodgkin Lymphoma and recommended her surgeon so we scheduled an apt with her. She talked about the same things, but in a way we could understand. I left learning that I have a tumor just under 6cm. It's called "invasive' because it is pressing on the duct wall, like it could get out into the tissue. It came back positive for HER2 and also hormone receptor positive. 

HER2  (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) is a protein primarily in breast cells that promotes cell growth. HER2 positive means you have excessive receptors on your cell which makes the cancer cell grow aggressively. About 15-20% of breast cancers are HER2 positive. About 20yrs ago this was a bad thing. It meant that even after treatment there was a very hight chance of it coming back. But they have learned that a targeted therapy called Trastuzaumab decreases your risk of it returning by 90%. 

My breast cancer is also hormone receptor positive which basically means my estrogen and progesterone feed the tumor. Tamoxifen is a pill I will have to take for 5 years that blocks my estrogen and progesterone from entering my cells. 

After talking with the surgeon we had decided that the best route for me was to do the lumpectomy and then start Chemotherapy and Trastuzaumab followed by radiation and the Tamoxifen pill. 

My surgery is scheduled for January. They will place the port at the same time and then I'll start treatment in February.