Breast Cancer by Angela Marcy
By Mel Fabrikant Saturday, June 09, 2007, 04:04 PM EDT
www.ParamusPost has seen a continuing interest in cancer treatments. With this in mind, we have asked our readers to contribute their stories. It takes a brave person to write about something personal.
Lying in bed on my side, watching TV one night in Dec 2001, I saw a lump on the side of my left breast. Then I felt it. I thought it felt kind of large. It was scary. (Incidentally, I had been obese before gastric bypass surgery and would never have seen or probably even felt it, had I not lost a great deal of weight.)
The next day, I called my doctor and she said not to worry and to come in to have her check it. Just to be sure, she sent me for a mammogram, which I immediately went for. While the nurse was explaining to me that they would mail the results to me in a couple of weeks, before she finished, the radiologist burst into the room to tell me with no tact whatsoever, "looks like breast cancer to me; you should make an appointment with a surgeon immediately!" I was too stunned to reply, except to say okay.
Saw the surgeon the next day and he very kindly confirmed it was indeed a lump that looked to be breast cancer. We scheduled surgery, which I had in very early January 2002. All went well with a lumpectomy rather than a radical mastectomy. The lymph nodes were checked and found to be normal.
I was offered choices of therapy after surgery. I opted for radiation on February 7, 2002 and it was completed and I was released on April 26 2002 ~ I believe it was 33 daily weekday treatments.
This all occurred at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair/Glen Ridge, NJ. Dr. Saj was the surgeon, and Dr. Stabile the Director of Radiation. I opted for no chemotherapy after radiation. I tried Tamoxifen, to no avail. It did not agree with me, in that it made me hyper. I was working P/T at the time and could not be hyper at my job.
I've had mammograms once a year for the left breast at Valley Hospital, and once a year for both breasts. All was fine until a hospital surgery blood test indicated return of breast cancer (in the form of nodules on my lungs) in December 2006 ~ 5 years to the month that it was first diagnosed!
I am now under the care of a wonderful doctor, Louise Ligresti, M.D. at the Valley Health Plaza in the Luckow Pavillion, here in Paramus. My first appointment with her was December 18, 2006. She has me on a newer cancer preventative drug, FEMARA. So far, it's working well as the cancer nodules on my lungs have not enlarged; and through scans and tests, they've actually gotten smaller!
Dr. Ligresti is terrific because she treats the whole person, not just the cancer ~ and she truly cares about you! Dr. Louise Ligresti is a cancer specialist oncologist at the Cancer Center ...
Angela Marcy
Lying in bed on my side, watching TV one night in Dec 2001, I saw a lump on the side of my left breast. Then I felt it. I thought it felt kind of large. It was scary. (Incidentally, I had been obese before gastric bypass surgery and would never have seen or probably even felt it, had I not lost a great deal of weight.)
The next day, I called my doctor and she said not to worry and to come in to have her check it. Just to be sure, she sent me for a mammogram, which I immediately went for. While the nurse was explaining to me that they would mail the results to me in a couple of weeks, before she finished, the radiologist burst into the room to tell me with no tact whatsoever, "looks like breast cancer to me; you should make an appointment with a surgeon immediately!" I was too stunned to reply, except to say okay.
Saw the surgeon the next day and he very kindly confirmed it was indeed a lump that looked to be breast cancer. We scheduled surgery, which I had in very early January 2002. All went well with a lumpectomy rather than a radical mastectomy. The lymph nodes were checked and found to be normal.
I was offered choices of therapy after surgery. I opted for radiation on February 7, 2002 and it was completed and I was released on April 26 2002 ~ I believe it was 33 daily weekday treatments.
This all occurred at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair/Glen Ridge, NJ. Dr. Saj was the surgeon, and Dr. Stabile the Director of Radiation. I opted for no chemotherapy after radiation. I tried Tamoxifen, to no avail. It did not agree with me, in that it made me hyper. I was working P/T at the time and could not be hyper at my job.
I've had mammograms once a year for the left breast at Valley Hospital, and once a year for both breasts. All was fine until a hospital surgery blood test indicated return of breast cancer (in the form of nodules on my lungs) in December 2006 ~ 5 years to the month that it was first diagnosed!
I am now under the care of a wonderful doctor, Louise Ligresti, M.D. at the Valley Health Plaza in the Luckow Pavillion, here in Paramus. My first appointment with her was December 18, 2006. She has me on a newer cancer preventative drug, FEMARA. So far, it's working well as the cancer nodules on my lungs have not enlarged; and through scans and tests, they've actually gotten smaller!
Dr. Ligresti is terrific because she treats the whole person, not just the cancer ~ and she truly cares about you! Dr. Louise Ligresti is a cancer specialist oncologist at the Cancer Center ...
Angela Marcy
