Lisa's F-Cancer Blog

My stitches look good and a lot of the glue has come off. The inked “yes” by my port site is gone. I still feel pain by the side of my breast/my underarm, but it has already lessened compared to the beginning.

I was switched to a new blood thinner medication due to the nausea, but then had a rapid heartbeat, so I was switched back. The nurse said the second medication doesn’t cause that side effect, but this is me we’re talking about!

I realized the other day that I screwed up the dosage. I was supposed to take two pills twice a day for 6 days and then drop down to one twice a day. At some point, I forgot it was supposed to be two and only took one from then on. I think it’s because it looks just like another medication I take only one of. I checked with the doctor and am staying the course.

What I’m having the most difficulty with right now is the yucky taste in my mouth, which – even though I’ve had it for months – is now making me sick to my stomach. It’s been 6+ weeks since chemo. Argh!

On the plus side, if I use a little gel to stop my hair from looking like I was electrocuted, it covers my head and doesn’t look half bad. I prefer it to any head coverings, but unfortunately still get cold, so sometimes I have to give in because it’s pretty thin. Warmer temps are coming this week, so maybe I can go free again!

It was great having both sets of parents here for Passover. Now Aaron is doing our taxes and Doran is working on an incredibly difficult puzzle I have zero interest in. Two more days of killing time by myself, I mean, two more days until I can use my arm normally (and go back to work!)!

My hand is still a bit swollen; I guess it won’t go down overnight. Dr. McAuliffe said to keep my arm elevated when possible. She notified Dr. Brufsky about the DVT and he too found it very unusual.

Of course the blood thinner medication is making me nauseous, when it supposedly doesn’t have any side effects. I googled this one, and something like 3% get it. Yay me.

Dr. McAuliffe said the surgical pathology results look great, with only a tiny spot of residual cancer, downstaging after neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy to Stage Ia (ypT1a N0). Yeah, I don’t know what that gibberish means either. I just see downstaging and Stage Ia and that’s pretty damn good! I’ll get more details and explanation when I see Dr. Brufsky on the 12th.

Yesterday I noticed that my right hand was slightly swollen. You really have to look closely to see it. I messaged my surgeon to be on the safe side. The nurse and I traded messages today; she had me send a picture of my hands. She could see the swelling and said she wanted to rule out a blood clot. She didn’t think I had one, especially since I have no pain, but to be safe she said she was trying to get me an appointment with radiology. If she was unsuccessful, she said I would have to go to the ED.

At the end of the day, she told me she got an appointment at a UPMC location about 30 minutes north of us (another one to add to my list). Aaron was at work, so Dad drove me. The ultrasound started at my neck and went down to my wrist. The tech repeatedly pressed down on my skin to check the blood flow. Then we waited for the radiologist to look at the results and call my surgeon.

The tech called my name and said they recommended I go to the ED in the same building, but he was not allowed to tell me why. He walked us over there, at which point I learned that my surgeon had called Aaron (since he’s been at every appointment with me, she assumed he was with me) and was explaining the results. She then called my phone to loop me and Dad in.

I do have a blood clot (DVT) in my arm that was caught early. She told us to tell the ED it was a DVT, which immediately sped things up. The ED doctor explained what was going on and said the treatment is to go on blood thinners for 3-6 months. They have a therapeutic effect within two hours and don’t interact with much. I got my first dose pretty quickly and was discharged shortly thereafter. Dad commented that it was the shortest ED visit he had ever experienced and we agreed that everyone was super nice.

As is typical, I’m the outlier. My surgeon said in all her years she had never seen this for my kind of surgery. I always knew I was special!

Feeling grateful tonight.

I was wondering why my left wrist hurt so much. I finally realized this morning — it’s where the IV was. Duh!

I’ve been sleeping a lot and trying to stay on top of the pain, which is mostly tolerable. My right hand is slightly swollen – I don’t know if that’s normal. I have to wear a sports bra 24/7, but that’s easy. It’s much harder to be so reliant on others because of my arm restrictions. It’s also difficult to know what is ok and what isn’t, since the doctor said I could use it very minimally, with no repetitive movements. 

The results came back, but they’re too technical for me to decipher; I’m waiting for the doctor to send an explanatory message. One part, however, was clear: the lymph node was negative for cancer! This hopefully means that it hasn’t spread!  

I forgot to mention the surgery itself went smoothly! As expected, only one lymph node was removed for testing. The results won’t come back for a while. It could be as short as two days or a lot longer, depending on the lab staffing.