August
10, 2005--I hardly know where to start about today.
It rained again. Being a farm girl from western Kansas, I never complain about
the rain, except when I have to drive in a downpour. I was spared that today,
as I was at work when it happened. I've had a request to send some to central
Missouri, which I'm trying very hard to do!
This is what I don't want to address,
but will anyway. Dr. Towell called. She had the results of the MRI I had done
on Monday. There are 2 spots deep within the breast that look very suspicious.
Her recommendation: a mastectomy. After my visit with her on Monday, I was afraid
of that. The positioning of the main tumor, in and under the areola, a lumpectomy
would leave me with half a breast anyway. And, with a mastectomy, I probably won't
have to have radiation, unless there is lymph node involvement. That, of course,
won't be determined until after a biopsy is performed on the sentinel lymph node
which will be removed during the surgery. You'd think I was in computer programming,
if this then that, if this then that.
I guess this news left me a little testy.
Not at Dr. Towell, or course. That woman is a saint. It's good that I feel this
way about her, because I'm going to be seeing a lot of her after the surgery when
she starts me on chemo. I got a little irritated when the reconstructive surgeon's
(Dr. Karin Montero) office told me that I would definitely have to wait 6 more
days have a consultation with her, and that she would not schedule surgery until
after I had seen her. Apparently she has more patients than she knows what to
do with. Dr. Towell told me that Dr. Regan said he would work me in soon. But
trying to get Drs. Regan and Montero to coordinate their schedules is likely to
be promlematic. What this boils down to is, I'll probably have to have the reconstruction
done after the chemo treatments. This isn't a known fact, but I would lay odds
that this will be how it plays out.
Then came further irritation. Dr. Montero's
nurse told me that she will need the medical records to review before the visit
on Aug. 15th. She said to call and ask for them to be faxed. My request was to
no avail, as ARC refused to fax them without the physician requesting them. So,
I had to call Montero's office back, have her fax me an authorization to release
information form, complete it and then fax it back to her. It even had to be witnessed.
I called out in the office, to Cyrus, "can I get a witness?" "Praise
the Lord," she said and was happy to comply.
One last irritation: 9 days
ago I had called our employee benefits customer service and asked for forms to
be sent to me for applying for medical leave. They dropped me through the cracks.
This time, I got a promise that the application for short-term disability and
FMLA would be emailed to me, toute suite. We'll see how that goes. Yes, I'm pretty
sure I will be off work for 21 consecutive days. That is actually a month, when
you figure in weekends. | August
11, 2005--Although
it had its bright spots, today wasn't much fun. It seems that the truth of my
situation is gradually sinking in, and it took a quantum leap today. I had an
appointment with a radiation oncologist, Dr. Kirsten Warhoe at Austin Cancer Center.
The staff there is very nice. They doubtless understand that cancer patients need
a little extra TLC. I explained to her that I probably won't be needing her services,
since the plan is now a mastectomy. She understood and said she hoped we wouldn't
have to see each other again. But, if it turns out that I have more cancer than
just the breast, we probably will pass paths again.
Right after the appointment
with Dr. Warhoe, Lee and I saw the surgeon, Dr. Regan. He recommends a mastectomy
as well. As in our last meeting, he had a lot of information to share in a short
time. To summarize, the sentinel lymph node will be removed during the surgery
and possibly another lymph node or 2. By doing that first, and freezing the tissue,
an analysis may be made during the surgery. If the nodes have cancer cells, they
will take out the axillary (underarm) lymph nodes. If the nodes do not show cancer
cells, then the rest of the nodes will be left in place. Now comes the tricky
part. A later, more complete analysis could show cancer cells in those lymph nodes.
If that happens, another surgery would be called for to remove the axillary lymph
nodes. The problem with that is, if a reconstruction is done, then that area will
already have had surgery on it. Not that this couldn't be done, but it would make
the surgery more difficult. I have no doubt that Dr. Regan knows his stuff. When
I had my eye exam by Dr. Keeland (scheduled 3 months ago), she told me that she
knows Dr. Regan well and that he is an excellent surgeon. She said to tell him
that she said to take good care of me because "you're special." I told
him that. He said he needed to get his eyes checked too. Gee, I hope he does that
before my surgery!
We still don't have a surgery date. After I see Dr. Montero
next Tues., Dr. Regan said that her nurse, his nurse, and I need to have a conference
call to get the surgery scheduled. I hope to be able to have it asap, but, Dr.
Montero's nurse made it sound like she is completely booked until Sept. That's
not good. But Dr. Regan seemed to be optimistic that it will happen. He said he
wouldn't recommend putting it off until Thanksgiving, but I could wait another
couple of weeks.
My friend Debby W. called this afternoon. She's been so wonderful
to me. She made me laugh hysterically. Lee works for her husband, Doug. In all
seriousness, Doug told Debby that I was going to have a vasectomy. Last night,
after I had a discussion with my father-in-law on the phone, where I told him
which breast, etc. etc., he gets off the phone and tells my mother-in-law that
I'm going to have a hysterectomy--and she believed him! So, now I'm going to have
a mastectomy, a hysterectomy, and a vasectomy. Shoot, I didn't even know I had
all those parts! I told Debby that she didn't know me as well as she thought she
did.
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