Doctor Visit

I think it's been a stressful few days. My body felt worse yesterday than it has in a while and really I had been feeling pretty good. I used one of those things you heat up in the microwave to wrap around my neck along with my drugs to finally get comfortable. Getting the drains out was great. 

I spent quite a bit of time over the past few days trying to figure out if the doctors I had been referred to were actually part of my insurance plan. I was assigned a case manager at the insurance company to help me through this illness and I think I knew more about how to get things done than she did. But all turned out fine, the radiologist and oncologist are both in my plan. My surgeon was able to help me get in sooner than March 11th which was wonderful. I now have three appointments next week. On Tuesday my first "pump up" appointment with the plastic surgeon. I think that is self-explanatory. Then Wednesday I see the Radiologist. He will recommend a radiation plan. On Thursday I see the Oncologist. Finally - I might know about what's next. It is driving me crazy not being able to plan. I want to have a plan for  my treatment and I want to make plans for doing other fun things like vacations, etc. 

My appointment yesterday with the cancer surgeon went well. I am healing fine. Still can't drive until I stop taking the drugs. Not ready to wean myself totally yet. We got the final pathology report. We had already been told no cancer in the lymph nodes which was what we had all been praying for and the final report confirms they are clean. The tumors (3 of them) were 2 CM each. On of the tumors grew into the chest  muscle. They got clean margins which is good. The doctor put in markers so that when/if radiation is ordered they know where the tumor was. Growing into the muscle is not really a good thing. Getting it all out with clean margins is a good thing. We shall see what the docs say next week.

Not sure if everyone knew I had a bilateral mastectomy. From the beginning I thought I would do this, it seems to be the trend. On so many different levels it seems to make sense. The chances (according to my doc) are about 20-30% that you will get cancer in the other breast. Up until the day before surgery I was doing both breasts. And then on that Tuesday I started questioning this decision. The MRI and mammogram on my right breast all showed it was fine. I had conversations with a number of my doctors, friends, husband, sister, etc. about what to do. Of course no one will tell you what to do. The doc said I didn't have to decide until they rolled me into surgery. It was rather an agonizing day for me but in the end I was back to my original decision and VERY certain that was what I wanted to do. It turns out that the pathology report we just got back showed pre-cancerous sections of the right breast. I did make the right decision most certainly. The pathology report confirmed it! And of course we all know that now both of my breasts will be perky when I'm 80. Not so perky right now... not much there and very sore but the future looks good!

Love all your prayers, support, emails and love.