Surgical Consult

I wish I had more energy to dedicate to this particular post…but unfortunately I’m writing this almost 5 weeks after my consult and I’m exhausted…for the sake of catching everyone up to speed, I’m gonna have to do a brief version of the story for now….bottom line is that everywhere I looked, All signs were pointing back Doctors Jesse Dirksen & Heather Karu … Several people who I know have gone with the dream team and we’re all very happy with the results…After I watch the video on Sanford’s website interviewing Dr. Dirksen I knew in my heart this was the doctor who was going to save my life… I even had a nurse friend Who had known Dr. Dirksen since childhood call me to check in and also to recommend him…She asked me if I had chosen a surgeon yet and when I told her the name she kind of squealed in the light because she was so happy to hear me say his name …& explained that she had called with the intent of telling me about him had I not decided already on another surgeon. At last, the 16th rolled around & Brian and I headed up to Sioux Falls…Bright and early, may I add, as mine was the first appointment of the day…. Steph, Dr.Dirksen’s nurse, completed my intake questions and set me up with a pink “open-to-the-front-robe” to change into for my exam. Next Dr. Dirksen came in and talked with us and I have to say my first impression was that he kind of glowed …it was like he was full of light and I can’t help but think it’s because he’s doing God’s work down here… It makes me think of the Show Touched By An Angel…when Roma Downey would be in a deep conversation with the episodes main character at the end of the show when suddenly a golden light would shine down on her out of nowhere and she’d be like “God loves you (insert name of whoever she was “saving”) …anyways He was also accompanied by a Sanford breast care navigator/guide, a nurse & fellow breast cancer survivor who “follows” the newly diagnosed patient through her journey , taking notes, gathering hand out/information and places it in an organized binder for the patient to take home… The breast care navigators are just such a nice asset to the Breast cancer care team like a nice little contact for anything I would need. First Dr. Dirksen went over my biopsy results with us as well as pulled up my MRI images to review…He then then the physical exam and then we sat back down and went on to discuss the plan… he said so the plan is “nipple sparing bilateral mastectomy” (I had already decided on the bilateral because of the risk of recurrence(Especially considering the large size of my breast affected by the DCIS /tumors and family history factors) . Also because I am a 45-year-old woman who enjoys dressing up and going places where I can wear a bikini still I wanted to look symmetrical and is close to “my old self” as possible… of course there are many factors involved in this and while I am hoping for the best case scenario we really won’t know exactly like my treatment plan will be until after the pathologist report comes back on my grass tissue that they can remove and also the setting on her biopsy results. Dr. Dirksen felt like as long as the cancer hadn’t gotten into my lymphnodes yet, And as long as they don’t find any signs of invasive disease in my breast or biopsy of the breast tissue and that we could call it a stage zero cancer and he said there is probably a 95% chance if I had in fact really had stage zero (Spoiler alert!! This was not the case…) that I would not need another form of treatment.