oncology visit (long)

[Guest guest]

I finally saw an oncologist yesterday and to my great surprise I

actually liked him a lot. He was honest, candid and both fortcoming

and thorough. When I asked him what was the most important thing to

him in a doctor patient relationship he said trust, not only that the

patient trust their dr but that the dr can trust the patient to be

honest and to try to carry out what ever they decide as a team to do.

As I had posted before I was upset because I had to wait so long to

be seen in Oncology and to my surprise so was he. When he read my

pathology report he was very upset that I was put off for so long,

because although the initial report said that everything looked good

the microscopic report showed that I had both lymph node involvment

and that my margins were not clean and that the grade of the cancer is

3, very aggressive also the tumor was twice as large as what the

ultrasound showed. He felt that I should have started Chemo two weeks

sooner so was going to the scheduling folks and raise cain, but while

that makes me feel better psychologically it certainly doesn't negate

the fact that I should have started treatment sooner. He also

admitted that it could even effect the ultimate outcome. As a result

of those concerns I am scheduled to have my first Chemo treatment on

Thursday at 9:30. After much discussion and many questions we have

decided to do 6 treatments 3 weeks apart of TAC. The other option

that he liked was 4 dose dense cycles of AC followed by 4 of Taxol. I

finally decided to do the TAC because he has more experience

administering that and the on line info showed that there is almost no

difference in the outcomes for the two treatments. Because of

the " vascular lymphatic disease at the deep margins " (quote from path

rereport) he also ordered a CT scan and a bone scan in case the cancer

could have spread into the lymph nodes by the breast bone (reason he

said it the delay could effect my outcome.) He also recommended that

after the Chemo is completed that I have a mastectomy on at least the

affected side but that a double was probably a good idea. Especially

if the CT shows any lymph node involvement.

So as you can tell the visit was quite unsettling yet very

productive and enlightening. I am somewhat nervous about the Chemo

but at least they are doing something.

Have any of you ladies had any experience with TAC and if so how

was it?

Thanks for being here and letting me ramble on so long, it really

helps just to be able to " talk " to someone who has been there and done

that.

in Denver