"It's better than i thought"

"Its better than I thought."  Those were the first words out of my surgeon's mouth when I talked to her yesterday afternoon (and p.s. she interrupted my afternoon nap so I was a little grumpy, so good thing she had good news or else I would have been super grumpy!).

Let me back track to Monday when I went to see her for my first post-op appointment. At that time she did not have my final pathology report but she had been communicating with the technician about my results. They both were thinking that all of the 4 spots they found prior to my surgery (1 was biopsied, the other 3 were not) were all connected in 1 big cancer cluster. If this were the case, which is what the tech and the surgeon were thinking, it would make the cancerous tumor over 5cm which would mean radiation and chemo. I was a bit bummed, but knew we didn't know anything 100% .

So, when the surgeon called yesterday, I was prepared for the worst. She surprised me when she said, "its better than I thought".  Turns out the main tumor, the one that was biopsied prior to surgery, is (or I guess was since it's no longer with us!) 3.2 cm.  The other spots were all ductal carcinoma in situ and were not connected to the main tumor.   Ductal carcinoma in situ is cancer that hasn't become invasive, or spread, yet.  I also did not have any lymph nodes envolvement.  The right boob was clear of cancer as well. All in all, better news than I was expecting! 

The surgeon has staged me at stage 2a, grade 2.  This means that tumor is larger than 2cm but does not include lymph nodes.  Grade 2 means that the cells look more abnormal and are growing slightly faster than normal boob cells. 

My surgeon is not recommending radiation, but did request I see the oncologist. She still believes that the oncologist will recommend I have chemo, but you never know, maybe I will be one of the few lucky ones who won't have to have it!