Meeting the Oncology Radiologist

After this appointment, I have to go on to work, so Leslie wasn’t able to go with me unless we took two cars. This seems like an unnecessary complication, so I headed out alone.

I went back to the same cancer center that I was at the day prior when I met the oncologist. I haven’t been sure how to refer to the oncology radiologist. Is he a radiologist specializing in oncology? Is he an oncologist specializing in radiology? So many questions in general for this whole process.

I arrived in plenty of time and checked in with a nice lady named Angie who gave me a heap of paperwork to process. She said that my nurse would be a nice lady named Rose.

When my time came, Rose took me to the back and checked my weight and my blood pressure and my oxygen. She led me into a small consultation room with a desk and a desk chair, and a couple of chairs across from the desk. I waited a fair bit for someone to come along. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I sat there and twitched a little.

Suddenly Dr. Radiologist and Erin the Navigator entered the room. He introduced himself immediately and stationed himself behind the desk with Erin to the side. He launched into a steady stream of information, and his gaze was so direct that I couldn’t look away to make notes.

Here are some things that I gathered:

There are two types of testing that can be done to ascertain if I will benefit from radiation treatment. One is Oncotype DX and a newer one called DCISionRT (pronounced decision RT). These can help predict in percentages if this cancer will recur in 10 years, with and without radiation. So if I have a score of 20% recurrence without radiation, and 10% recurrence with radiation, it’s pretty clear that I would have radiation. The problem is that my DCIS is on the left side so it’s near the heart and left lung, and radiation could affect my heart and lung. There’s a breathing technique used during treatment where you take a deep breath and hold it for 10 seconds to help lift the DCIS away from the heart and lung.

I am not one bit interested in having radiation, but then I am also not interested in having DCIS recur. Those sneaky little cancer cells can be hiding and are undetectable by modern testing until they reach a certain age. Mine has been growing for probably 8-10 years, but it is when they are about 6 years old and have attracted calcium which attaches to them that they become shown on the mammogram as calcifications. However, calcifications can be shown on the mammogram, but it’s not DCIS, it’s just calcifications. So radiation is necessary to zap all those little hidden cancer cells.

I asked when I would be scheduled to meet again with the surgeon, and was told that the surgeon’s nurse was out sick that week and that someone would call me next week.

I’m definitely interested in having testing to find out my chances for recurrence.

I finished up with Dr. Radiologist and headed on to work.

Now I wait to hear from the surgeon.

Tags: DCIS, Oncology Radiologist