breast cancer [View all]

It is confusing. Last year they told me I had cancer and needed surgery. Then they told me it wasn't really cancer it was PLCIS. Not DCIS, not LCIS but PLCIS. Pleomorphic lobular carcinoma in situ. Actually it is treated the same as DCIS and even though initially they panicked me. it was easy and just a lumpectomy. NBD in fact I was admiring the scar in early summer, it is barely visible now. I went for my 6 month and all was good. No problems.
I changed providers for my annual and went to a facility associated with my doctors group. The biggest reason I changed was because they have 3-d imaging. I have dense breasts with lots of calcifications so it felt like my best bet. Indeed it was.

They did the left first and it all seemed fine. My right- well the picture didn't come out and the radiologist wanted another. Okay. Gulp. My Dr.s orders included an ultrasound of the left -so off I go to the next station. The technician started on the right. No, I said it is supposed to be the left. The radiologist wants me to do both. Shit. The radiologist comes in and tells me it is very small. Need a biopsy. They wouldn't have seen it without 3-d. It turned out to be infiltrating ductal carcinoma.

Surgery, pathology, and it turns out there were 4 IDC's all very small and clustered together under a very large PLCIS. They got good margins on the IDC but not the PLCIS. Back for surgery. They tell me if they don't have good margins this time, I'll have to have a mastectomy. Waiting.