pathology or clinical staging?

[LAURIE]

I have been going though all of this craziness with 2 conflicting stagings. I knew as soon as I got my pathology report I was considered stage III (with the 10 positive nodes and 3 cm tumor) Actually I thought Iwas IIIC, to be technical. I talked to my oncologist about this and he insists I am Stage II. I know it should not make a difference, (since treatment is the same) but for insurance reasons for the future I wanted to know, plus I wanted to answer correctly when people asked. My radiation Oncologist explained it to me as this. My oncologist is looking at the clinical staging and I was looking at the pathological staging. I am not really sure which staging is used for what situation, and think that all records at my oncologists office say stage II. I insist I am stage IIIc and the normal BC world goes off of pathology rather than clinical. I guess I am different in that I fall between the two thoughts of staging.