I apologize for the length of this.. but I have not written in nearly a year... and now I need to.
Hello my wombless sisters:
Well, Aug 7 will my two yr ann. of my radical hysterectomy... yeah... On Dec 30, I had a digital mamm.. 5 days later I had my sec mamm and 5 days after that my 3rd mamm and an ultrasound... then.. they schedule another ultrasound they found suspicious "things" near the nipple in the ducts... and a cyst closer to my arm... so, 2 weeks ago I went in for a 6 mo. check up as they decided to monitor the suspicous "things".... however, this time, there was a mass behind the "things"... they sent me to a breast health specialist who said the mass was in a duct and although it was very similar to a ductal papilloma... it was still different. No leakage, rapid growing, and large the stuff inside was also hard, not fluid... So large in fact that he is not even going to do any type of biopsy, or lavage or anything else.. He is just going to remove it.
From what I can tell, this does not sound at all like a papilloma, it does not really sound as though it has a name... just like a cyst or tumor...
Anyhow... he suggested that I start reducing my HRT.
6 mos. ago. My physician told me that he wanted me on it for about 5 years total as the day after my surgery, the hot flashes and dry skin and mood swing hit me like a brick wall.
He also said it was a good way to protect myself from heart disease...
So now I am so concerned. I have atypical papilloma, maybe cancer, no ovaries or uterus, one doctor saying I need estrogen and heart protection and another telling me I need to get off of the estrogen (Premarin, I tried others) because I was a candidate for further breast cancers.
No cancers of any type run in my family.
I have read a lot of the subject.. and I am supposed to make up my own mind.
I only know one thing... I know less "for sure" than I did before except I am having surgery for possible breast cancer brought on my HRT.
My hospital is one of the US top 100 breast cancer specialty hospitals we have, and my surgeon in the head of the dept. Yes, I trust him.. My physician is one of the best in the city... and I trust him.. They both say I have to make the decision on my own.
I am really in question as to what to do.
This sucks. Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder.
I can live without a boob, I can think of a lot of other more fun ways to die. But trying to stay healthy and doing what you think is right and what you are told is right and then finding out it was the wrong choice... is painful.
Having your female body parts taken away from you is not an easy choice to make but when they "have" to be taken away just so you can stay alive is also not an easy choice.
Cancer and Women's health issues are issues that need to be brought to the forefront of American Health issues.
Now, we are in a crisis mode. There is actually a bill that is going to be signed when Congress returns that is actually going to force women receving mastecomy's to leave the hospital within hours of their surgery... with drainage tubes still attached, while they are still dazed from anesthesia adn while the risk of infection is still high.
The best place to find out the most information about it is actually at this address
http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/mastectomy.asp
You can access the link to sign a petition to ask congress to vote against it..
I sure would not have wanted to leave the hospital the day I had the hysterectomy... It was bad enough staying in the hospital 2 nights and leaving the next a.m. and I had to beg to stay the 2nd night. Please sign this petition.
If you have any advice or similar story to the atypical papilloma, I would love to hear back from you, I do not have anyone to can understand this, my hubby is a doll, but he does not quite "get it".... Thanks so much
I have had
Justenough