Today I met Dr Chatterjee, a very nice young oncologist/ plastic surgeon
( Educated at Penn and Dartmouth, so he is not a “double Jumbo” as my other surgeon called herself ( two degrees from Tufts).
This man’s job is to fix me so I look good after the surgery to rmove my tumor is done. What is done is not a “lumpectomy” but its not a mastectomy either. They get to take more from the bad side, take some from the good side and make me even, but also smaller. ( if any men are reading this, please feel free to skip ahead, there will be no quiz).
This actually allows the surgeon to be more agressive in taking a larger margin around the tumor. Otherwise, he says that sometimes they have to go back in. With this surgery the risk of that is smaller.
They already decided that surgery will be mid december on a Monday. I just have to wait to get the date. It should be a few weeks after chemo is over.
To be honest, like most women, i just feel like “ just get it out, i dont care…” but maybe I’ll look better when I’m 80 (if i make it that long )
Anyway I came home with a folder of kick-ass journal articles that Dr Chaterjee ( he introduced himself as Sonny) has co-written, guaranteed to lull me to sleep later. Also a page of statistics showing that Tufts has the highest breast conservation rates compared to national data including DF and Brigham, and largest volume of advanced oncoplastic techniques. Obviously I am aware of how stats are subjective and can be manipulated to show best light,etc, and every case is different, but they are pretty high on the positive outcome scales.
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