Getting the news

We learned about Melissa's diagnosis after she had a biopsy following a DIGITAL mammogram. The doc spoke the words "Ductal Carcinoma In Situ" (DCIS)- of course what you hear is "You have cancer!" But after the first moments of shock, we started our research. Luckily a friend had done a lot of research since his wife also has DCIS, and that gave us a glimpse into the subject. But the Mammo was followed up with a contrast MRI and a second round of biopsies, and it was made clear to us that this slow growing form of cancer has been around for a while.

The best thing we did was go to Hawaii for a week where, armed with yet more research from a Breast Cancer Center in Missouri, we were able to form a scientifically validated opinion about the situation, frame our questions and generally come to the place where we realized that "Melissa" doesn't have cancer, her breast tissue has some cancer cells in the plumbing between the milk glands and the nipple. And that we are going to beat this. Period.

Luckily, DCIS is slow growing, non-invasive and not very aggressive form. But 30% of DCIS goes on to become invasive cancer, only we are not certain as to which 30%, so we need to act. Our doc believes that in Melissa's case, hers is more likely to progress to invasive cancer if left alone, which further prompts us to action.

Action on the calendar includes visits with breast surgeons, and genetic testing. We have some work to do to make final decisions, but the way things look, in this situation, Melissa is facing a mastectomy to ensure that she rids her body of DCIS, and along with the Mastectomy of course, she will have breast reconstruction. The big question on our minds this week is this: Should she have a bilateral or a unilateral procedure? We will ponder this and get input from the surgeons, but we are leaning this way because she is going to have to have surgery on her left breast as well during the reconstruction phase, and because the risk of invasive cancer in the uninvolved breast is increased when DCIS is present in the the other. Our view is why risk it, an ounce of prevention could be worth a pound of cure. One advantage of a Mastectomy as an approach is that Melissa will not need chemo or radiation as long as the margin (space between the tumor and the chest wall) in surgery is as it is on the MRI.

Thats where we are as of today.