Diagnosed, now what?

I have a bump in the boob and it is cancer. I know nothing about breast cancer.  I don’t have a family history of breast cancer. Now what?

The radiologist recommended I see a surgical oncologist as soon as possible and she recommended Dr Torres-Salichs. Two days after the diagnosis my husband and I walked into the waiting room of his office. We had agreed that we would take an interview approach to this first appointment. We didn’t know this doctor and we wanted to make sure I had the best possible doctors to support me throughout the journey and not just go with whomever was recommended. Taking this approach with each new doctor helped us be in control of the process. If there was no connection, we didn’t have a good feeling about the doctor and his/her answers to our questions we had the option to choose someone else.

Dr Torres-Salich was awesome from the get-go. The office staff was very welcoming and caring. He really took his time with us. He had all my medical records, ultrasounds, lab results available when we walked in. He also showed us a very comprehensive presentation about the different options. Mastectomy, lumpectomy and nipple sparing options. 

We walked away saying: this guy knows his sh*t. He was going to be my surgeon.

We ended up naming him Rafa. He has long hair and he reminded us of the Spanish tennis great Rafa Nadal when he still had long hair. We nicknamed all our doctors to keep them apart.