Just to bring everyone up to speed. We saw the surgeon this morning. (If you're wondering why I keep saying we, my husband is right there with me the whole way so he's experiencing everything but the actual cutting.) We were originally supposed to see him next week but we were able get an earlier slot so things are moving right along. The day started with a touch of anxiety...it's like stage fright...it goes away once the "performance" starts. We arrived before they even opened the doors, I filled out my paperwork and we were ready to roll. They got me in quickly for the physical exam and then I met Bobby in the conference room for the show and tell portion of our program.
We reviewed pathology reports, surgical options (I'm stubborn, I stuck to my guns on the only acceptable option...but I listened like a good Southern lady should), what we know now, what we don't know yet, what we'll find out from surgery, my surgical future (it looks like about 4 in the next year or less), treatments (more to come on that after we meet with the oncologist) and other fun stuff.
So here's what we know.
We reviewed pathology reports, surgical options (I'm stubborn, I stuck to my guns on the only acceptable option...but I listened like a good Southern lady should), what we know now, what we don't know yet, what we'll find out from surgery, my surgical future (it looks like about 4 in the next year or less), treatments (more to come on that after we meet with the oncologist) and other fun stuff.
So here's what we know.
- I'll be having surgery on Thursday April 17th. I'll arrive by 11, surgery by 1, surgery will take at least 2 hours, stay overnight, and, if all goes as it should) I will go home on Friday.
- They will be removing both breasts. On the left they will also test and take lymph nodes, on the right that won't be necessary.
- We're not sure if there is lymph node involvement BUT they didn't see anything of concern on the ultrasound. TINY VICTORY #3
- I will be having genetic testing. In the last two weeks I unknowingly and unintentionally increased the cancer risk of my sister and my daughter. More about what that means for our baby girl later. CANCER SUCKS!
- We will not know the "official" staging of my cancer until after surgery. The clinical staging, based on what we know now is Stage 2. I was pleasantly surprised by this news as well as the lymph node news. AGAIN, this is all preliminary and could change with what they find during surgery but I was preparing for the worst news and didn't get it. Better is ALWAYS better.
- They asked me today if I would prefer to be stuck in the arm each time for chemo or get a port. I said PORT PLEASE! The surgeon said the port placement would not be done with surgery, it would be done later.
- Reconstruction - the question everyone wants to ask. I will be having reconstruction. I will admit that I did have a borderline crazy semi-feminist moment when I told Bobby that I wasn't sure if I was going to have any reconstruction done. I thought I would just go without because society placed too much value on women's breasts...yada yada yada. Luckily, I snapped out of it. I've got my eye on a pair of Scarlet Johansson's! lol
After consulting with the surgeon, I've agreed that I'm OK with doing this in a multi-step process. Everyone has their own opinion but I've settled on this. The downside is multiple procedures but I'm pretty sure that surgery isn't the worst thing I'm going to go through over the next year. - If you know anything about breast cancer, the following information will make sense. If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, now would be a good time to jump ahead. :-)
I'm ER positive, PR positive and HER/neu positive. This wins me a year of Herceptin, some Tamoxifen and other fun stuff. I'll also need to have the ol' ovaries extracted at some point in the not so distant future. If anyone has a need for useless organs, let me know. I'm going to see if they can just go ahead and yank out my gallbladder, appendix, and maybe my tonsils and my spleen. I think it will ultimately save us all a lot of time and trouble later. Ya think they'll go for that?? ;-)
So here we are. Bobby and I are going to get haircuts tonight. No, I'm not taking it all off yet. I thought it would be less traumatic for my babies if it goes gradually. It will be back this time next year so I'm taking as much control as I can. I don't do anything too drastic. Angled bob first and we'll see where that takes us. Mattie has already said she wants me to have pink hair so you can bet there is a pink wig on my wish list. lol Progress is good, friends! I'm worn out and tired of hearing myself talk today. I'm going to make a couple of additional phone calls then I may try to sneak in a nap. We'll see how that works out.
Don't forget to sign the guestbook, if you are so inclined.
Love to all!
Andee