Finally was able to see FL Hospital Oncologist Dr. Rebecca Moroose. She was really pleasant and took a lot of time to go over my reports and discussed the options with me. My prognosis is looking good, tumor markers(which are an indicator for systematic tumor markers) within acceptable ranges and the hormone receptors + and the other her stuff being -.
She agreed with the action plan of Dr. from MD Anderson however wanted to add that she would have asked for a Petscan.
It seems like MD Anderson is not scheduling a surgery date until they see the breast MRI
So the action plan is :
- Get the MRI done Tuesday
- Wednesday meet with Dr. Danelle Chambers from MD Anderson and see how soon they can schedule the surgery, if they can not get it together consider the option of going with FL Hospital. Dr. Moroose said she could get me into surgery within 1 week ( but immediate reconstruction issue might delay that one too )
Later met with 3 wonderful/high spirited ladies who are in the Breast Cancer Support group in Hunters Creek. They have a support meeting 2nd Monday of each month. 2 of them had been operated by Dr. Chambers, it seems like I am in good hands. Evelyn did not talk favorably about immediate reconstruction due to the additional stress on the body. But I still am going for it if I can.
Leighsah expresses exactly how I am feeling in the Comment she made below :
"Right about now life is coming at you about a million miles an hour and at the same time standing still. "
She is so right. There is limited time to assimilate information and make an informed choice, but on the other hand I just can not wait till the treatment starts.
After each doctor appointment I feel drained and it takes me a day to recover from it. Discussing the illness seems to have a negative affect on my morale, is this denial syndrome or self preservation ? Don't know yet.
Today I feel blah ! Probably because it is Monday or maybe I was not able to work out at all.
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Right now, you have a ton of decisions to make regarding where to have treatment, what kind of treatment, surgery, reconstruction, paying for this, work and just getting used to the idea that you are the one with cancer.
Once you have made some decisions, I promise this gets easier. I'd also recommend doing the research as well as you can right now, make your decisions and then don't look back.
As for reconstruction, I too wanted it immediately, but that wasn't to be. I'd also recommend holding off on it until you are all done with treatment. The bilateral mastectomy isn't fun, but it isn't awful either. I distinctly remember another woman telling me those exact same words when I was first diagnosed. I thought she was nuts. She was right.
As I said, I had a bilateral mastectomy. The surgery is rather extensive. It is more important to have the treatment, whether that is chemo, rads or some combination, because the reconstruction must have sufficient time to heal. Chemo is definitely not conducive to healing and radiation to the surgical field can cause fairly serious damage that may cause the reconstruction to fail.
I would ABSOLUTELY NOT have reconstruction before your treatment. The risks of damaging the reconstruction are fairly significant and there is only one good try at reconstruction with a flap like you want.
As for the surgery, I didn't heed any of the warnings about restricted lifting, sun exposure, punctures, etc and I had 42 of 42 positive nodes. I was in pretty good shape when I was diagnosed and decided I didn't want to live such a restricted life. If the side effects occurred I'd deal with them, but nothing happened and I'm fine.
I know right now you have a billion people telling you things, some are helpful, other people feel compelled to share their horror stories. I listened to everyone, did my research and then tuned out the unhelpful people.
Again, I am available to meet, talk, bounce ideas off of, and play show and tell (I haven't had reconstruction). I am also a triathlete, did a half marathon two weeks after my bone marrow transplant and am letting you know there is plenty of life after cancer. And once you have a schedule down with treatment, life and training flowed along pretty nicely even during treatment.
Once you start treatment, I'll pass along some tricks I learned to make things a little easier.
Leighsah
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