Meeting with surgeon

After meeting with the plastic surgeon, I decided to meet with my surgeon again to try to get a clearer idea of whether I will have radiation and/or what my reconstruction options are.  I originally told him that I didn't want to do a lot of research because I felt like it would raise my anxiety level, but I have been doing research, because I now feel like I need to know what the options are and I definitely don't have enough information.

I had a list of about 10 questions. I first met with my surgeon's fellow, who listened to all my questions and then went and talked with my surgeon.

When my surgeon came in, he said, you only get one chance to get a good reconstruction.  Therefore, his plan was to do surgery only on the left breast.  Then if I need radiation, that side will be reconstructed first.  Later, the other side will be done, to try to match the left.

He said he will remove axillary lymph nodes during my surgery and these will be dissected and analyzed.  Whether I need radiation will be determined by whether any of these nodes are "involved" and if so, how many. 

I had asked whether I could get my port removed after I finish chemo. He said the port needs to stay in until the surgeries are completed.

I felt like, reading between the lines, my surgeon thinks I'm going to need radiation. He also seemed to be making some assumptions that I am going to do reconstruction.  Today was the first I had heard that both sides would not be done in the same surgery and it was not great news to me.  I made a decision early on to do both sides because I don't want to spend the rest of my life worrying about it showing up on the other side. However, I think it will be much harder to do this in two separate surgeries.

I felt like I definitely needed to talk with radiation oncology to get the facts on what would be involved if I do need radiation and exactly how it affects reconstruction options.  I really didn't like the radiation oncologist I met with right after my diagnosis so I asked for an appointment with the head of radiation oncology.