At high noon yesterday, my arm restrictions were lifted. In case you were worried, using it is just like riding a bike. It feels SO GOOD to be typing with two hands again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This afternoon was the appointment with Dr. Brufsky. First, we met with his nurse Abby, who answered most of my questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I complained about my bad taste buds, she said all chemo side effects are typically gone within three months. I\u2019m hoping it\u2019ll be more like two. Dr. Brufsky said if I still have them by the time I see him next in mid-June, he\u2019ll be concerned. So I guess I have to grit my teeth and be (more) patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abby explained the pathology, though it was information we already knew. My tumor was initially at 4 cm. At the time of surgery, there was a little bit of tumor left at 0.25 cm. It had a RCB (residual cancer burden) of 1, and no tumor in the lymph node. This is \u201creally good news,\u201d she said, which was echoed a few times by Dr. Brufsky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abby said I might be given a medication called Xeloda after radiation because of the residual cancer, but she wasn\u2019t sure if Dr. Brufsky wanted to do this. Sure enough, he doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s a need because it would only add a very small benefit and there are side effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I asked Dr. Brufsky about the chance of recurrence, he said it\u2019s less than 10%. And if it comes back, it\u2019ll come back in the next five years. But he doesn\u2019t think I need to worry because the cancer was almost all gone, etc. Aaron reminded me that this percentage includes people with a lot more risk factors than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked if he had any estimates on how much radiation I\u2019ll need. He thinks 15-20 days of treatment. That would be less than I was expecting; I hope he\u2019s right!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scans aren\u2019t routinely done unless there are symptoms. They often wait six months after radiation since the tissue can change. I’ll have one mammogram a year, and visits with Dr. Brufsky every six months for the next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Brufsky is pretty sure my DVT is from the surgery. He wants me to see a benign hematologist since he doesn’t think it’s related to the cancer. I can talk to this doctor about the side effects and stuff. When we got home, I called the person he recommended. His first available isn\u2019t until \u2013 ready for this? \u2013 January 2025! Hopefully I can get in with someone else in the practice sometime this century!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we were checking out and scheduling the next appointment, I saw Roseann, one of my favorite chemo nurses. She didn\u2019t even recognize me with my \u201chair.\u201d She assumed I was going to dye it (since it\u2019s mostly gray right now), and I said absolutely not! Of course she asked how I was doing and even asked after my parents. It was great to see her and the other office staff I\u2019ve interacted with \u2013 all of whom were really friendly and happy to see me looking better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next Thursday is the post-op appointment, and then on the 25th is my radiology pre-scanning appointment. As Dr. Brufsky said, the worst is over. It\u2019ll sink in once the taste bud stuff is gone (am I sounding like a broken record yet?)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At high noon yesterday, my arm restrictions were lifted. In case you were worried, using it is just like riding a bike. It feels SO GOOD to be typing with two hands again! This afternoon was the appointment with Dr. Brufsky. First, we met with his nurse Abby, who answered most of my questions. When […]<\/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-357","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\/357","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=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmyhead.com\/wordpress\/fcancer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}