She's not scheduled for anything yet. Her results from the biopsy just came back on Friday (of course now she has a weekend to stress) and the appointment Tuesday is with the surgeon who she is comfortable with and came recommended from my cousin who is a local radiologist.
I'll check out the websites and forward them to her as well. She's the type who will get easily overwhelmed. I think that's why she's asked me to go with her. I can keep cool and take notes. I have a book for her to write down her questions and keep notes. I know when my bil had leukemia the book was a literal life saver.
It's kind of interesting going through this because you meet a slew of doctors and sometimes different ones have different takes on things.
All she knows so far is it is a 'small cancer, 1 c.m' and they will remove it and do radiation
This probably came from either the radiologist or the primary care doc?
At her appt with the surgeon, she'll primarily be discussing surgical options,, although he or she will give an opinion/overview of what else she might need based soley on the biopsy, knowing the patient is hungering for that information at that first appt. (Just know that that information can change based on the actual surgical pathology - like Pats Mom just posted above - ie what they find when they examine the removed cancerous tissue.)
She will likely need to decide between lumpectomy w/ radiation vs mastectomy. This you can read about on breastcancer.org. If the tumor is small and contained (even if it's invasive), surgery and radiation will have essentially the same long term results as mastectomy alone. Taking off the breast doesn't guarantee she'll live longer or anything like that, which is what most people think going into the surgeon. In many cases, it's overkill, though in years past this was the standard treatment. (And understand that sometimes it
is required if the cancer is spread throughout the breast in different spots that they can't get in one shot; or if the woman is very small chested, etc.) So this is something you should definitely ask the surgeon to explain further. My surgeon herself wrote my options down on my paper along with recurrence rates with each type of surgery so I could study them further.
You should also ask him or her to explain "clean margins", which means they need to get all of the tumor out completely and will go back in again if they don't. A pathologist will actually look at the removed tissue to make sure the edges have no cancer cells, as if they do, cancer can grow again. However, even with clean edges there is always the possibility that some cancer cells are left behind and this is what radiation is designed to take care of: to clean up the local area around the tumor and in that whole general area (which may be larger if the tumor is found to be invasive, eg they'll do under the arm, ie axillary area, and above the clavicle with invasive, as breast cancers can spread there).
Another thing to ask the surgeon is about sentinel node biopsy/axillary node dissection. (You can read about it on breastcancer.org also.) This is to rule out whether the cancer in the breast spread to the lymph nodes under the arm before it was found.
Generally they do this during surgery, but they may do it differently depending on where you go. But checking the nodes with all breast cancers is standard. Node removal can lead to lymphedema in the arm, so again, something to ask the surgeon about.
You'd also want to ask the surgeon about how long the hospital treatment will be, ie overnight? day surgery? and what the follow up with him or her will be both short term and long term.
Now, treatment other than the surgery is referred to as Adjuvant Therapies. This means radiation and/or chemo and other medical therapies. For this, she will see a radiation oncologist and/or an oncologist. They are the only ones who can make a definite treatment plan for your friend once all the results are in
after the surgery and your friend has chosen which route she wants to/needs to go as far as post surgical options. The things that are important to know here are hormone status, HER2Neu status, whether the cancer is invasive or not (which should be in the biopsy report but *could* change), and whether it's spread to the lymph nodes or not, as these factors will drive any adjuvant treatment decisions.
Yup, fun stuff.
It's a lot to take in and a lot to decide about.
A notebook is good. Don't worry too much about writing every possible thing down, as most medical records today are electronic and you can simply get a copy of your records. (Definitely get a copy of the biopsy results right away so she can look things up that pertain to her - the surgeon should give her a copy.) The things you really need to write down with the surgeon are the things she needs to decide about *surgically*: surgical options, lymph node options, clean margins, follow up. Firm decisions about adjuvant therapies can't really be fully decided until later, when all results are in, and with the other doctors.
One thing to caution about: the reading is scary. Unfortunately, it must be read in order to make informed decisions (well, for most people - some really do want absolutely no part of reading and that's fine). Also, no two cases of BC are ever exactly alike. So what someone else did or didn't do won't pertain to her - there's no way of knowing for sure what someone else had, exactly, either. Many people can't say whether they were hormone receptor positive or negative, how many nodes they had positive or whatever. So they may be telling you something but your friend's case may be completely different. FYI.
That's about all I can think of right now. Feel free to ask ?s here if things come up. Good luck this week.
I hadn't heard that, either. New stuff coming out all the time which is great. My docs are pretty good about sorting out the "must do's", "should do's" vs the "can do's".
Hang in there. 
. Then found out when I went to visit the onc. for what I thought would be an "all clear" visit a few days after my surgery that I was going to need both 
. Talk about a letdown. I wished the doctors had told me that chemo/rads were a possibilty rather than saying I didn't need them only to find out later that I did. Neither were as bad as I had heard and not everyone needs adjuvant therapy but it's good to be flexible in what to expect. And no question is too dumb or embarrasing to ask either here or at the doctors office. If your friend doesn't ask a question that you think she needs the answer to, then feel free to speak up and ask for her.
and why you might ask?
So I've been busy figuring out furniture placement and colors, etc. Too cool after 3 yrs wait. We decided last week also on the flooring, the wall wood type, color, and door between kitchen and sunroom. It's really going to have an outdoor feel which is what I was going for. We've got a flagstone slate floor with beautiful earthtone colors, fir walls and ceiling with a neutral light taupe solid stain, and french doors. I really can't wait until it's finished! Pretty soon!
. How many pins do you have? I have never gotten into that. 
