I had my lumpectomy on Jan. 30, 2023, and the incision seems quite large considering they were looking for a 5mm tumor. I’m guessing that tumor size has nothing to do with incision size. The good news is I received my pathology report yesterday, Feb. 1 2023, and the margins are clear with dcis being 8mm from the closest margin.
Another result that has me puzzled is that the tumor size was measured at 2mm in the pathology report and not 5mm from the mammogram. Is this normal? For the previous 6 months I had been trying active surveillance while taking anastrozole for high estrogen. My mammogram in Dec. 2022, showed that my tumor had increased from 4mm to 5mm which convinced me to do the lumpectomy. Had I been told it was 2mm, I would still be doing the active surveillance.
I’m thankful that the dcis is gone, but this has been a really difficult and challenging time with all of the unknowns. My surgeon now wants me to discuss radiation therapy, even though I’ve had the test that says I’m at low risk! When questioning the surgeon, her response was "That's just the way dcis is handled."