My mom had her appointment at the Siteman Center yesterday. It was an all day affair but well worth it. She got to meet with her surgeon, her plastic surgeon, got all of her blood work, etc. taken care of.

Her surgeon said that there is a good chance that this cancer is still at a Stage 1 phase, however we won't know for sure until the surgery. Based upon the type of cancer she has the likelihood of it coming back and appearing in the other breast is high, so he was very happy that my mom had already decided she would be having a double mascetomy. The only issue that concerns him is that there are some very small clusters of cancerous cells in that same breast, but since she is having mascetomy it shouldn't cause too much of an issue.

She felt that the staff was excellent. They talked with her at length about her cancer, the surgery, what they can offer her, etc. etc. She feels so much better about the situation now. It looks like they have her scheduled for surgery in 2 to 3 weeks, since they have to schedule the surgeons together. After the surgery she'll have spacers implanted in her breasts and regularly go and they will inject them with saline solution to inflate them.

FYI- My mother does have breast implants, but that in no way was the cause of her cancer. Ironically enough, having never been happy with her breasts and getting implants over 10 years ago, has allowed her to deal with the mascetomy much better.

I want to say thank you to everyone for their kinds words. And thank you to Kayte whomever you are and wherever you are, I appreciated your kinds words and thoughts on the Siteman Center. I pray for your mother as well.