Meet the consultant - 25th July 2019

Meeting with Mr Skene 25th July 2019

I met my friend Guy at Bournemouth hospital, who works alongside Mr Skene. They have been doing so for many years, so I felt safe with him being there. Mr Skene greeted us and introduced me to two others in the room. His nurse, Chris, and a student doctor. There was a lot of small talk and politeness, and then we got down to the nitty gritty. Mr Skene showed me my mammogram, and to an untrained eye it really was difficult to know what he was looking at. Then he zoomed in and showed me the areas of concern. Ductal Carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is also referred to as pre cancer, as they now know that if left untreated this will become invasive and spread, turning into something a lot worse. Mine is also ER+ & PR+, which basically means that it is hormone fed by eostrogen and progesterone. The future risks of further recurrence in the unaffected side are kept at bay by taking a hormone blocker, Tamoxifen. His main concern was how widespread it was in my right breast, and basically told me, you will need a mastectomy. In my head I had already reached this conclusion because I had been researching over the previous week about lumpectomies, followed by radiotherapy, chemo etc and then people still having to have a mastectomy. I just thought, I'd rather go straight in for this option to eliminate risk. And he confirmed it. I tried so hard not to fall apart in the room. Ben was sobbing next to me, and all I could see was everyones faces staring at me, waiting for my response. I just smiled and said "ok". What else could I do? I couldn't change it, I just now had to go into survival mode and get on with it.

"Spa afternoon - Ben being Ben, preempted the situation. He booked a spa in the New Forest, and we drove straight there after the hospital meeting. Made our way to the nearest pub and had a bottle of bubbly!"

We cried, we laughed, we drank and then in the morning we had a lovely morning in the spa. Trying to understand what was happening. It was so surreal. I just felt like I was having an outer body experience. Even now I still get the feeling. Like I'm looking in on someone else life.

At the time of this appointment, it wasn't clear if the DCIS had started to move through the ducts, this wasn't established until after the operation and the breast tissue was sent away for histology. This then came back around 2 weeks later and confirmed 3 areas had already moved outside of the ducts. This is when it is no longer only in the ducts and when it can then spread to other parts of the body. So I am forever thankful for the early screening, because if I hadn't gone then and waited a couple of years, who knows what the situation would have been like.

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