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You've just been diagnosed with breast cancer.
This nightmare begins in the dark where it is scariest because there are suddenly decisions affecting your life and longevity that you are asked, or sometimes told, to make without truly understanding your options or even how to begin to make decisions about radiation, lumpectomy, mastectomy or about reconstruction. I will try to break it down to something more like a decision tree, showing the pros and cons to each path, and giving a perspective on how the path might affect your life after breast cancer, or as a survivor with breast cancer.
First for most everyone concerned financially, you should know that there is a legal mandate for all insurance companies to cover breast cancer treatments, immediate and future, including reconstruction and procedures to achieve and maintain symmetry.
Primary Goal: Survival. If your breast tumor is just in the breast or just in the breast and lymph nodes, you will probably have to choose between lumpectomy plus six weeks of radiation and mastectomy. Both have the same long term survival expectation. The lumpectomy and radiation carries a slightly higher risk of it coming back in the breast and needing more treatment. Sometimes another lumpectomy or a mastectomy needs to be done if there is no clear margin with the first lumpectomy. This will be your choice, and your choice alone, to make with the help of multiple sources.
In next weeks blog post I will go over immediate and longterm personal considerations.
If you would like to read the full article in one piece here is the PDF for download.