11 Hours Until Surgery

Well, neither Tim or I really like this doctor very much. It's his personality... I don't get a warm and fuzzy from him. Very disturbing, actually. Our first meeting with him was 10 minutes of him avoiding answers, answering questions with questions, referring some of our questions to "this other person we'll be speaking to" and so on. When we left that day, we really didn't know much more than when we went in there. On top of it, he acted like he was in a hurry and we were wasting his time!

Then, on Monday, we talked to my Radiation Oncologist. She is wonderful! She seemed to have all the time in the world for us, and not only answered all of our questions honestly, but even brought up a few other important points! With the surgeon, he was even vague about answering questions directly relating to the surgery. The radiation doctor gave us all of the info we wanted, and more! I really liked her (actually, I think I have said this already in an earlier blog).

So, because of the meeting with her, Tim got on the phone and tracked the surgeon back down yesterday and "had a talk with him." It's so cute when he says that. I can only imagine how the conversation went, but needless to say, this overly busy surgeon suddenly had time to see us today, and didn't seem to be in any hurry at all! Go figure.

Well, we were able to "trap" him long enough that he answered all of my questions. Since so many have been calling (and if you've left a message and I haven't called back, I'M SORRY!!!) with similar questions, I'll try to answer some:

I am going in at 8:55 tomorrow morning so they can insert this dye into the tumor. It takes avout 2 hours to get to my lymph nodes. From there, they'll be able to see which nodes are being affected and just biopsey those, instead of removing them all like they used to do. So, I'll be having a lumpectomey done, where they remove just the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue. A separate incision will be made under my armpit to get to the lymph nodes. The whole procedure should last about 90 minutes or so. Then, they'll keep me in a recovery room until some of the anestesia begins to wear off, and then I'll get to go home. We did have the dr. write my prescription today so that Tim wouldn't have to worry about getting to the base tomorrow to pick up pain pills for me.

He said that I will have some soreness (obviously) and won't be able to lift my arm very high for a few days. But, I'm hoping to go back to work in a week or so.

Then, my next appointment (besides some post-surgery check-ups) will be with radiology on the 28th of November... The day after mine and Tim's 9-year wedding anniversary. From there, I'll be doing radiation (it's not clear how long I'll be doing this yet) followed by chemotheraphy (also unknown as to how long). The doses for radiation and chemo will be better known after the tumor and nodes are removed and sent to pathology for testing.

If the lymph nodes come back positive for cancer, I will require another surgery to remove those. Also, some of you have asked about reconstruction. The dr. said that 95% of these types of surgeries do not require plastic surgery, because my body should naturally build up scar tissue in the place where the tumor is being removed from. So, I should have a small scar from the incision, but nothing worse. The stitches will even be under the skin, instead of the outside.

Oh, and one more thing.... everyone keeps asking what stage of cancer it is. Sorry, but they really won't know until after the surgery exactly how large the tumor is and if/how far it may have spread. He said that the reason the tumor showed up bigger on the MRI than on the mammogram is that the MRI picks up everything, including inflamations. So, the tissue around the tumor could be inflamed, but not have cancer in it. We will find that out at the surgery.

I guess that's about it for now. Thank you to everyone that has called to wish me well, and for the e-mails I've recieved! It is so wonderful to have so many people care about me.

Love, ~Brenda