Thursday, July 14, 2011

Consultation with the Samurai Swordsman

This is a follow up post to the lump found in this post (well the lump's not IN the  post but you know what I mean.)
http://gilenya.blogspot.com/2011/06/xanax-sonogram-and-great-big-needle.html

I should have known when my referring physician couldn't remember the surgeon's last name for a few seconds and got embarrassed saying "His first name is Jeremy and his last name escapes me. Sorry, this is really unprofessional," that he was going to be a young knife happy guy.

In all fairness, Dr. Jeremy was a very professional, thorough and seemingly knowledgeable Doogie Howser kind of guy who looked to be anywhere from 18 - 30 and I bet he gets carded every time he wants to go out for a beer after a long day of cutting stuff off of/out of people.

He looked my chart over and asked lots of questions about my medical history along with the whole family tree's. Then he did a breast exam and really gave me a good once over - twice. He said the same thing my GYN, (Dr. Darryl if we want to stick with the first name thing), had said which was that breast cancer normally is not painful so the pain is a good sign.

He then sat me down, (or up, actually since I'd just been laying down) and told me I had 2 options.

1. I could do a biopsy to remove all of the tissue in question. He would send me for a mammo where the radiologist would "insert a wire" into the exact area so there would be no doubt as to what was to be removed. Then it would be done at the hospital as an outpatient procedure.

I asked if I could have local anesthetic. I really don't want general since I have not had any surgery since my MS diagnosis nearly 13 years ago and I don't want to be throwing anything new into the mix. He said I could have local. First the anesthesiologist would give me something to put me in a twilight type sleep and then they would numb me up and go in. He said it's the same stuff they use on colonoscopies. I winced since I've had one of those and did NOT like that stuff at all. I talked the whole way home from the procedure and said God knows what on the 1/2 hour drive only to ask my sister if I had slept the whole way because I had no recollection of the trip.

or

2. Wait 3 months and redo the mammogram to see if the inflamed tissue has returned to normal. He said that after reading the radiology and cystology reports he felt comfortable telling me that he didn't believe waiting would be a bad thing or that anything might happen during that time if I opted for the mammo over biopsy.

He just said that with the biopsy we would once and for all know what we were dealing with and there would be no conjecture.

So naturally I chose what any red-blooded American hypochondriac scaredy pants would choose.

My mammo is scheduled for some time in October.

2 comments:

  1. Jeri, if that Dougie Houser surgeon is from my local area, you have got to email me with his whole name! It could be my favorite surgeon ever! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. He's from right here in Palatka, Suze. Still think you might know him?

    ReplyDelete

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