A Medical Miracle??

Having finished my course of chemotherapy, this week I had an ultrasound and met with the surgeon to discuss results and next steps. After getting "excellent, excellent" as the comment from him after a feel at our midway appointment, this time it stepped up to "incredible"! Apparently the ultrasound showed no cancer and he can't feel anything either, meaning I have responded really well to the chemo. Excellent news :) I think the lump actually disappeared after the very first chemo, from what I could feel anyway - perhaps eating grapefruit and sunbathing topless did the trick?? Not that I have done either for quite awhile...

However, because of this, I've not been booked in for surgery yet - he wants to discuss my case with the multi-disciplinary team (oncologists, breast surgeons, radiation specialists etc) at their meeting next Thursday before deciding on the next steps. He suggested that perhaps they would recommend an MRI to have a more detailed look at what is happening (or not happening, as the case may be). It doesn't appear to be a situation that they are commonly faced with - usually there is at least a small lump or something that can be seen or felt.

My guess is that the team will still recommend surgery, a mastectomy and lymph node removal, to be on the safe side. From what I have read, just because they cannot see cancer, doesn't mean that it isn't still there, lurking... A quick google reveals people on breast cancer forums who have been in the same situation and there are a variety of outcomes - people who still had mastectomies and nothing was found, people who had mastectomies and cancer was found lurking, and people who didn't have surgery and it didn't return years later. I didn't actually find one where they didn't have surgery and it did return, but I'm sure that happens too. It seems that generally surgery does go ahead, even if the cancer seems to have disappeared, just to be sure. To be honest, while I am obviously not too keen on the thought of a mastectomy (single or double) and I would hate to have one unnecessarily, I also think I would be very worried about it coming back if no further action were taken, so I'm not too sure what I am hoping for now, it is all a bit unnerving...

I have an appointment with a plastic surgeon next week to discuss reconstruction options and the breast surgeon wants me to still go to that appointment, so I think I will be boobless by the end of March, but I guess we'll have to wait and see...