I know you\u2019ve been consumed with wanting to know if I had a glass of wine on Thanksgiving. I\u2019m sorry for taking so long to follow up. I hope you haven\u2019t been neglecting important duties in the meantime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without further ado, dear Reader, the answer is no. No, I did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cancer gave me all the side effects on Thanksgiving day, including a temperature. As I sat in my chair, wrapped in warm, snuggly blankets trying to calm down my chills, I knew the Pinot Grigio in the fridge would have to wait another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two days later, in fact. Upon which I promptly spit it out. That\u2019s the problem with white wine; it goes bad faster. It just wasn\u2019t in the stars this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The worst side effect this week has been the worst stomach ache I\u2019ve experienced. I\u2019ve had it since the start of chemo, but the last two times have been markedly longer. The best way to describe it is Intense, sharp waves of pain. I did get some over the counter suggestions from the doctor\u2019s office today, so I\u2019ll start implementing more pills to my already large daily stash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today was a long awaited appointment with my surgeon, Dr. McAuliffe. Like last time, she did an excellent job of explaining things verbally, visually, and by writing them out. She also can no longer feel my tumor! The report from my last scans said that the overall size of the mass was initially 3.5 x 1.5 cm. It has shrunk to 1.3 x 0.8 cm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She confirmed that breast conservation (vs. mastectomy) is the way to go. There is no change in risk between the two. This method always requires radiation, and with mastectomy, only sometimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But why not go with a same day surgery that preserves the breast as opposed to a mastectomy, which has a much more involved recovery, etc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. McAuliffe said breast conservation (BC) is a great option for me, especially given the genetic results. She said it’s possible the tumor will disappear completely with further chemo. Even if it does, she still needs to go in surgically to sample where it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to surgery, I\u2019ll go to radiology and get a marker called a seed. I already have a clip from the biopsy. The seed is also a piece of metal with radioactive iodine that will signal to her so she can find where the tumor was. She will remove any cancer cells and a rim of healthy cells (margin). If no tumor at that point, then it\u2019s all margin. When she removes the tissue, it is x-rayed, and if clean margins, the surgery is done. The removed tissue will be examined more closely after surgery to confirm clean margins. Sometimes, cells extend to the edge of the removed tissue. This requires going back in at another date, called a re-excision. There is a 10% chance that will be needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Usually there\u2019s one cut on the breast and one cut under the arm, where she may have to remove lymph nodes. I have always had normal imaging of my underarm lymph nodes, but there\u2019s still a chance there\u2019s cancer there as it\u2019s usually the first place cancer spreads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During surgery, Dr. McAuliffe will inject a dye, which will go to the sentinel lymph node, and maybe others. She said most people have two nodes that light up (but can have as many as 10). Lighting up with dye means they are upstream from the cancer area and they need to be checked (removed for biopsy). They don\u2019t want to remove more than they need to because of long term side effects
(Like lymphedema, a 5% risk).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though it\u2019s outpatient surgery, I\u2019ll need general anesthesia (which I don\u2019t react well to). She explained there\u2019s lots of stuff in the area of the underarm (nerves, vessels, etc) and it can be dangerous if I move, hence the need to knock me out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So the anesthesia and the restrictions after surgery will be the hardest part, not the surgery itself. Get this \u2013 I can\u2019t do any lifting or reaching with my right hand for two weeks after surgery. This includes no repetition, even small movements. Think the mouse and typing \u2013 on my keyboard, and phone\u2026 Speech recognition may not be an alternative option for me because it always has trouble with my deaf accent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When will all this be taking place? First I have to finish chemo, and if it gets delayed in any way, I\u2019m to call her office. A week after my last chemo, I have another mammogram and breast ultrasound. A week after, I meet with Dr. McAuliffe again. Four to five weeks after the last chemo will be my surgery, tentatively scheduled for March 28th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Radiation will begin a month after surgery. Typically it\u2019s daily for 3-6 weeks, but they won\u2019t know my timeline until they get more information from the surgery. So, sadly it looks like I may still be in treatment on my 50th birthday. But the end will be in sight!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I know you\u2019ve been consumed with wanting to know if I had a glass of wine on Thanksgiving. I\u2019m sorry for taking so long to follow up. I hope you haven\u2019t been neglecting important duties in the meantime. Without further ado, dear Reader, the answer is no. No, I did not. Cancer gave me all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}