Finally some answers....sort of

Well, today's appointment finally came, although I felt like it never would.  I met Dr. Jacobs and Ray and I both liked her very much.  She did an exam, had me get dressed and then asked us to meet her in her office.  She gave us "breast cancer 101" and said that my pathology report had a lot of good stuff in it (cancer is progesterone & estrogen positive, meaning we can treat with meds) & a few not so good things (rate of growth). She didn't feel any lumps in my lymph nodes (good), although there was one "outlying" lump (not in my armpit) that was suspect. She's calling it stage 2 because of the size of my lump.  

Here's the next steps:  a breast MRI, consult with the plastic surgeon  & an appointment with the oncologist.  

In a nutshell, it sounds like I've got the best-case-scenario type of breast cancer.  I still have many unanswered questions, but I know that surgery will come before any other treatment.  They will do a test to figure out if it's spread to my lymph nodes during surgery.  At first I got the impression that I wouldn't need chemo, but the doctor said the oncologist usually suggests chemo because of my age and health.  So that's still up in the air.

I feel a little bit more... at ease.  I am glad that we got the results earlier (although I could have done without the 16 day wait to see the surgeon) and were able to digest the diagnosis before getting inundated with more information.  I'd also like to have definite answers, but I guess we can't have everything we want, eh?  All of that will come in time and we're hoping in a year's time, this will all be a memory (and I'll have a new rack :P )