Hope..

 After the last appointment, I was so ready to be done with that Dr.  Unfortunately, I still had half of my staples in and would have to go back at the end of the next week to get them removed.  I was also STILL waiting on pathology.  We were at week 3 at this point.  The original lab sent it to Shands for a 2nd opinion.

While my lovely tumor was making its trek to Shands, I was making the same direction.  I had an appointment with a Breast Specialist/Oncologist early the next week.  After researching the new Dr.  I got excited.  She's a woman! Not only that but she specializes in breast preservation and high risk patients.  Good hands to be in.

We arrived at Shands for the appointment, and the waiting room was a lil scary - mostly older women, and many of them look sick.  And I know that kind of sick, I have seen it before on my dad.  It's that exhausted, fighting for life chemo/radiation sick.  Is that going to be me?  I found myself asking in my head.  After a little more thought (the wait was long)  I thought...I hope not, but if it is I'll fight it as best I can.

As soon as I met Dr. Spiguel I LOVED her.  She is so down to Earth and doesn't mess around.  She is a little older than I am, but knows her stuff!! She sat down and asked me to bring her up to speed.  When I told her the little I knew, and the lot I didn't know, she stepped in and saved the day.

She had pathology results! (Enter a chorus of Hallelujahs) Once I became her patient, she stepped in with pathology.  She wanted an answer - she got it Phyllodes, borderline.  She then explained it in detail with us,  as well as what it meant for me in the long run.  She also said that she had ordered more stains on the tumor to rule out sarcoma.  

When she did the examination, she was not thrilled with the staples either.  I started to feel like maybe I should be angry, but I still wasn't.  It's a shoulder shrug issue to me.  She check my nodes, went over my imaging, and then we got down to a plan.

We discussed margins, which is important, especially with phyllodes.  We want negative margins, meaning no tumor cells present, at a determined distance from the tissue still remaining in the breast. Well, hooray, hooray, the previous lab did not orient the tumor before they sliced it, so if there are any positive margins she will have to rove more tissue all the way around because she wont know which side it's from...Thanks lab!  She also wanted me to get an MRI so she can have even more data for her decisions.

Finally, we discussed the two paths I had laid out before me.  I had 1, possibly 2 more surgeries.  The final surgery options were a reduction of my breast (even there was enough viable tissue) or a skin sparring mastectomy.  It was all dependent on further imaging, the continued pathology, and board discussions.  

She referred me to a plastic surgeon she has worked with in these types of cases, and sent me on my way.  I left there with more hope.  She reassured me that the first priority was my health and trying to preserve as much of my own breast as possible.