chemo today

More Chemo Today

No Chemo today

Blood counts are too low. I feel fine though.

surgery went well

I got my path report back. it appears this cancer hasn't spread. the tumor was 3.5cm. i think it's difficult to tell if the chemo may have shrunk it or not. i guess i will start more chemo in a couple of weeks. i'm going back to work tommorow(friday) - the surgery wasn't painful...i haven't needed any pain meds at all.

She wants to be my doctor?

I had my pre op appointment today. I don't have a "regular doctor" because I'm usually sick (except for the cancer crap) and once you have all those cancer related appointments who wants another Doc. This preop appt - which should have taken 5 minutes took 90 minutes including the lab and EKG. Does she realize this is not an invasive surgery?

She was giving me the hard sell to be my "primary doctor" ...left me with a weird feeling.............

chemo isn't working

I just found out today that I will be having surgery Monday. My tumor is not responding to the chemo. They are going to remove the offending part, so hopefully it doesn't spread. Sounds like I will be back to work in one week. I will then do a different chemo and finish the rest of the surgery in the fall.

I feel great!

I feel great today. I started feeling at about noon on Sunday….it’s the weirdest thing. Right now I can’t believe how crappy I felt. On Friday I "went to lunch" in the backseat of my car. It was terrible. It wasn't able to lay down for awhile, I think I would have collapsed. I hope that doesn't become a necessity.

crappy chemo

I’m about to leave for work…not sure how long I will last….I might need something stronger than this compazine……I think I will live

more chemo

It looks like this is a new cancer (so soon!!!). I am going to be starting Chemo again. I'm going to do a different drug combo this time.

This one is in the opposite breast. It has the same patholgy as my first one (aggressive and not easy to treat) The good news is that it is new and caught before it spread. The bad news is that it happened so soon after my last chemo and grew so fast, so it would be expected that if I treat it the same way I could get another. I am going to have genetic testing done. I will be doing chemo first so we can watch it shrink (often they totally disappear) and I will likely decide to remove all breast tissue (and do reconstruction) to minimize the chance of getting another. I'm guessing my surgery would be in the fall or maybe November. I'm starting to look for a surgeon.

My brother is in town. He has two weeks off before he goes back. I think he leaves next Friday

This cancer crap really sucks!

good news

The nurse called today to let me know that the PET scan looked good...no hot spots or signs of cancer anywhere except the breast.

cancer confirmed

I got the results today. It is another tumor, not good. I had convinced myself that if I could go 2 years without it coming back I would be clear. Unfortunatley, I also told myself that if it came back sooner I would likely die from this. Can I revise that?

I scheduled an appointment with the surgeon for Friday, but cancelled it after I talked to my oncologist. He can get me in this week, so we will see what he says...........

Here we go again....

I saw Dr. Palmer today for the new lump that I found. She went straight to the biopsy - no need for an ultrasound or mammogram. She said "this is very concerning". They will call me tommorow. I know the ansswer already.

“...Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Viktor Frankl, from Man's Search for Meaning

genetic testing??

My sister is talking about getting tested for BRCA 1 and 2.

If I have a reoccurrence I will definitely be tested.
Right now I do not want to be tested because I don’t think I would have a bilateral and remove my ovaries. If I had cancer again I would be more open to that.
What’s the point in knowing if you aren’t going to take action? A negative could give you false confidence – most cancers are not hereditary.