Surgery 2.0

Last week when Dr. Bouton opened me up, he found the Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (tumor) that he expected and it was smaller than originally thought. Yay! But he also found a 5cm area of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) radiating around the tumor. Boo! If you remember from an earlier post, the cancer started in the duct but grew through the wall of the duct and started invading the surrounding breast tissue. The DCIS is the same cancer but grows along the pathway of the duct without breaking through the wall.

Long story short, I have two kinds of breast cancer. But it doesn’t change anything.

The pathology of the tumor and DCIS looks for the clean margin of healthy tissue. At one end section of one the ducts, there wasn’t a clean margin. Next Wednesday I will have a second surgery to clean up that area. It will only require sedation, Dr. Bouton will open up the existing incision, and I will be home the same day. Then we wait another week for the pathology to ensure a clean margin again.

The pathology on the lymph nodes removed found a few cancer cells but based on the ratio of bad to good cells, the nodes were still technically clear. I’m not sure how that works but I’m good with it! So the staging of the cancer remains the same as before, 1A.