I’m finding there is a whole lot I don’t know about cancer.

I’m also finding there is a whole lot other people don’t know about cancer as well.

When someone hears I have cancer, the first question 95% of the time is, “What stage is it?”  I don’t have the answer to this question. The reason I don’t have the answer to this question is because I haven’t had surgery yet to remove lymph nodes and have them tested. 

The following description is from Cancer.net and it explains the differences between the cancer stages:

Stage 0. This is used to describe cancer in situ, which literally means “in place.” Stage 0 cancers are still located in the place they started and have not invaded nearby tissues. This stage of cancer is often highly curable, usually by removing the entire tumor with surgery.

Stage I. This is usually a small cancer or tumor that has not grown deeply into nearby tissues and has not spread to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body. It is often called early-stage cancer.

Stage II and III. These stages indicate cancers or tumors that are larger in size, have grown more deeply into nearby tissue, and have spread to lymph nodes, but not to other parts of the body.

Stage IV. This stage means that the cancer has spread to other organs or parts of the body. It may also be called advanced or metastatic cancer.

Until the lymph nodes are taken and tested, the stage is not known.

Cancer is a whole lot of hurrying up and waiting.

The other day I went in to meet with my radiation oncologist. He was a pleasant man, funny and informative, but in a way the meeting seemed like a huge waste of time. He talked to me about different radiation protocols, which was educational. However, all it did was give me a bunch more things to think about that are currently out of my control. Until the surgery is done, and the pathology reports on both the tumor and the lymph nodes comes back, I can’t do anything about radiation anyway. Not even choose the protocol I want to pursue. What those reports say will affect the doctor’s recommendation of what protocol I go through. Those reports may disqualify me from one or more different protocols as well. So for 2 hours I learned about what I may or may not be able to do. I also learned that the chance of reoccurrence is about the same no matter what protocol you use, but of course the doctor’s want you to do the American (up to 40 treatments) protocol over the Canadian (15 treatments) even though they both have pretty much the same results though quite a different price tag. And of course, no treatment can guarantee no reoccurrence at all.

Something else the doctor talked about that was really kind of freaky was how long the cancer has actually been in my body.

He talked about how there are billions of cells in the human body and how cancer starts with just one of those cells going rogue. That cell replicates and then there are 2 rogue cells, then 3 then 20, 123, 2135, and eventually several million cells that are lumped together and able to be seen on a mammogram or in another diagnostic test.  But those cells took a long time to grow into something visible, so basically, the answer to how long has the cancer been there is YEARS.

We talked briefly about the so called benefits of a mastectomy. The chances of reoccurrence are virtually the same whether it’s a mastectomy or lumpectomy. Just for the pain factor I’m willing to go with the lesser surgery and take my chances.  Mastectomies don’t necessarily stop the chance of breast cancer anyway. Can’t imagine how pissed I would be to have a double mastectomy, go through all that surgery, all that pain, and then still end up with breast cancer anyway. While I am going for genetic counseling, I highly doubt a positive result would be enough for me to “Angelina Jolie it”.

That was about it for that appointment and so for now it’s just more waiting. Still haven’t heard from the hospital to schedule my presurgery testing, only 2 weeks to go!