FINALLY! On July 27, 2011 I went into the Graham to have my platelet levels checked for the 5th time, they came back at 94 and my doc said it was fine to get my last chemo. I was ready to put this phase behind me and get moving onto the next. Now, because there was no way to determine when I would be able to get chemo I did not get my pre-medicated steroids, so of course I was nervous about this. While I sat in my chemo "suite" waiting for the pharmacy to mix up my meds, my co-workers Kelly and Ginger came in and made me stand up and close my eyes, not going to lie I was a little nervous. When I was allowed to open my eyes they decorated my suite with streamers that resembled fireworks and had a shirt, backpack, glow sticks, a framed saying, and other goodies. All of my co-workers have shown me how much they care during all this, each round they would take turns coming in and checking on me or sitting there and chatting with me. I really am extremely lucky when it comes to those girls, everyone at my work has gone above and beyond anything I could ever have expected. My dad and mom bought pizza for the entire office as a way to say thank you for everything. I was ok with this treatment, I think because I knew it was the last time I was getting it, time went by like usual, Ryan, Wendy, my mom, and myself played Uno for a bit and after awhile I just sat back and watched. When it was all over I got so many hugs and congratulations from people, it was an emotional ending but a great one. There is no words to describe how it feels to know that I will not be putting that poison back into my body. The recovery from this final round of chemo has been very good too, the only major side effect I have had is the yucky mouth issues. I don't even care about the mouth issues though because I AM DONE CHEMO!!!
I met with my breast surgeon the day after chemo (last Thursday) and he was very pleased with the exam he did, he told me if he had examined me for the first time on that day he would say that everything was normal and I had nothing to worry about. That made me extremely happy to hear. After getting dressed we went into his office to discuss surgery, I got very sick to my stomach at this point. I have never had surgery before, I am not thrilled that my first experience is going to be a major surgery. The first thing he did when we got into his office was apologize again for the whole collapsed lung nightmare. I told him it was done and over with no need to apologize, even though I am still a little angry about it I figured he is performing major surgery on me I need to suck up. He pulled up a CT scan of my chest on his computer and said he had my thoracic surgeon, the guy who gave me the chest tube, look over my scan because he still could not figure out how he hit my lung. Apparently, the main vein in your neck area that runs down to the main artery in your heart, where my port is placed, is supposed to be in one place and of course mine is not in the proper location. He said my vein actually runs right along side my lung and there is usually space in between the vein and lung but not on me. Basically what that means is when he put the "finder" needle into my vein before the catheter because it runs right along my lung a little hole was made. After we discussed this we jumped right into lumpectomy vs mastectomy surgery. He told me breast conserving surgery, lumpectomy is what the surgeons are told to try and do on breast cancer patients that are young, he said he knows that I want a double mastectomy and he will be more than happy to perform that. I told him I was interested in getting more information on the lumpectomy and he said if it was his wife he would go for the mastectomy. OK, now I am back at square one. He looked over more of my old scans and said he really doesn't think I am going to need radiation after surgery. He does not believe any of my lymph nodes involved but will only be able to determine that during surgery. If I opt for a lumpectomy he told me to be prepared for possibly needing more than 1 surgery, depending on what he finds during the first surgery. I told him I was going to go for the mastectomy, he recommended a right side mastectomy with immediate reconstruction (when he said that it felt like Christmas), and a reduction on the left side. I asked him how immediate reconstruction works and he explained that a plastic surgeon will be in the OR as well and as soon my breast surgeon is done with his part of the surgery the plastic surgeon takes over and "reconstructs" me. I said "ok, so I will wake up with boobs" he said yes. That has been the hardest part of thinking about the surgery, how do you wake up from that with nothing on your chest? I still don't have details about the implants yet, I meet with my plastic surgeon on Aug. 25 to go over everything. I am more nervous about the surgery than I was of chemo. I have a little break until surgery, it is scheduled for Sept. 16 at 12:00pm. UGH.
Tomorrow morning at 9:00am I will go and get my post chemo MRI, mammogram, and ultrasound. I am VERY nervous about the results of these tests. Everything can change after tomorrow if the tests don't show what we are hoping for. I was told by my oncologist to be prepared that the MRI probably will not show complete response to chemo (meaning the cancer is gone), all they are looking for is to see that the tumor has shrunk. Fingers crossed we get the best news tomorrow.
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