The Cancer Journey

From the moment a breast concern is identified, a nurse navigator will be there to help! These nurses are there to coordinate care with other treatment team members, including appointments for consultations and physician visits, as well as, guide patients through:

• Counseling
• Questions
• The translation of medical information
• Scheduling appointments/tests
• Understanding the plan of care
• Expectations for treatment and medicine
• Relieving fears and anxieties they may have

Our goal is to keep the patient and family informed, get answers quickly and shorten wait times wherever we can. We are concerned not only with how our patients heal physically, but emotionally as well.

Surgical Options

Total (Simple) Mastectomy

A surgery to remove the whole breast that has cancer. Some of the lymph nodes under the arm may also be removed, which is known as a sentinel lymph node biopsy, and then analyzed under a microscope to see if they contain cancer cells.

Modified Radical Mastectomy

A surgery to remove the whole breast that has the cancer, the lymph nodes under the arm called a lymph node dissection, the lining over the chest muscles, and sometimes, part of the chest wall muscle.

Breast Reconstruction Surgery

A surgery which rebuilds a breast’s shape after a mastectomy. Reconstruction may either be performed at the time of a mastectomy or in the future.

At the Breast Center at Ohio Valley, our reconstructive surgeons are expert microvascular-surgeons who work right alongside your multidisciplinary treatment team, educating and counseling the patient on the reconstructive options from the beginning of treatment. Microvascular surgery is the premier method of breast reconstruction in which the reconstructed breast is made with the patient’s own (non-breast) tissue. The reconstructive procedures available include:

• Implant Reconstruction
• Latissimus Dorsi Flap Surgery
• DIEP Flap Surgery
• TRAM Flap Surgery
• GAP/S-GAP/SIEA Flap Surgery