One More Time!

  One more time, and I hope it's the last! Surgery, that is. Tomorrow is the final step of my reconstruction - removal of the tissue expanders (aka "the rocks"), and placing of the permanent implants. It's only a day surgery, and both the doctor and the nurse assured me that it will be a piece of cake. I'm counting on them to be right, because I have a dentist appointment and band practice on thursday, and I'm going to work on friday.

  I'm certainly not sitting around waiting either: Four performances (with 2 different bands) in the last 6 days have kept my mind (and lips) occupied. I just got home from #4, which was fun (as usual). I have a whole week off until my next gig! Whatever will I do with myself? I'm thinking I may do some knitting, maybe read a book or four.

  Since it's getting near bedtime, I need a snack. No food after midnight, you know. I believe there's a big bowl of ice cream with my name on it.

This is it

So I had my lymph node mapping. I thought it was just a dye, but no. It's a radioactive tracer. So, apparently I'm "hot" for the next 12-24 hours.

Of course, we're having a snowstorm today (and tonight), so driving to Madison twice for separate appointments was not fun. The roads were passable, and only saw 4 cars in the ditch on the last trip. Tomorrow morning will be snarky because it will be so early (oh, and we have to leave even earlier because of the snow).

My bag is packed: toothbrush, socks, underwear, knitting - good to go! Having a fabulous dinner in - pulled pork enchiladas with salsa verde. The house smells so good! My mom made it to the house without sliding off the road, and boy did she bring the luggage! At least I know she's staying for a few days and I won't have to worry about getting Katrina off the school in the mornings.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll be awake and hospital cable will have Versus so I can watch the bike race.

One

It seems like months since I was first diagnosed. Oh wait, it was months - three and a half actually. Now it's just one more day (because it's almost bedtime, so today doesn't count anymore). It was a busy day - cleaning, laundry - really exciting stuff. I did cast on a new knitting project: a scarf for a friend. I attempted to fix the huge, gaping hole in Karl's sock (failure - guess I'll have to make him another pair soon).

Nobody wants to hear about that pert of my boring life though.

Tomorrow I have my pre-op appointment with the plastic surgeon who's doing the reconstruction part of my surgery. He's the same Dr. that did my reduction surgery, almost 5 years ago to the day. He's great and I have total confidence in his abilities.

Then, late afternoon I have to go to the hospital for my "lymph node mapping". Basically, they're injecting bright blue dye into my right boob so they know exactly which lymph nodes are associated with that area. Then, they'll only take those lymph nodes for biopsy. This is my biggest worry - that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. When I had my MRI in October, it didn't show any lymph node involvement, but that was 3 months ago. Lymph node involvement equals chemo and/or radiation, and that would suck. I finally have my hair grown out long (after 2 1/2 years of waiting) and don't want to lose it, and we have a big vacation planned for May, and I don't want to miss that!

So, one more pre-surgical post tomorrow, then off to the hospital at o'dark thirty tuesday morning.

Surprise!

I had a lovely surprise yesterday morning, right after I got to work. The surgeon's office called: they had a cancellation and"could I make it in that afternoon?" Well, yeah! Much better to miss work on Wednesday than the Friday before Victorian Holiday Weekend! The downside? I hadn't shaved my pits.
It was a good appointment, the doctor is great, he went through the different options, told me what would be best for my situation, and reassured me that waiting until after Christmas won't be a problem.
So now, I just have to wait for the nurse/coordinator to call to let me know what's available for surgery dates, and get my pre-op appointments scheduled.

ETA: Woo-Hoo! The nurse called already this morning, and my surgery is scheduled for Jan 18.
Damn! I'm still going to have to do inventory at work.

One or two?

Wow, this is definitely not going to be an easy decision. Not something I want to take lightly.
One side, or two? There are pros and cons either way. It's not often I have to make a choice like this - one so life altering. This is going to be tough.
I'll look the same either way, so why would it matter? The Dr mentioned that the risk of cancer developing on the other side is about twice that of any woman developing breast cancer. Do I want to completely eliminate that risk? The quick answer is yes, but I also need to think about the recovery from the surgery - how much harder will it be? I'm leaning toward taking both "girls" off. I guess I have a bunch of reading to do.

Finally!!

Well, I finally got the full scoop today. And, I got written copies of my pathology and MRI. And, if you ask me, it was pretty good news. Yes, I'm going to have surgery. The right side has to go. The other side? Well, that's kind of up to me. Either way, both sides will end up matching, and I get to choose my size! Those of you who know me, you know I'm a "busty" gal. It's tempting to just get rid of them both (the girls and I have never really been best of friends anyway). That would eliminate the risk of any cancer developing on the other side. But that isn't required.
The remainder of my good news is that I don't need any radiation or chemo. When I have my surgery, they'll take a couple of lymph nodes for biopsy - just to be sure it hasn't spread. Only if they find something on that would I need any chemo. That was my biggest concern - I just finally got my hair long enough for pigtails (after 2 years of growing!). But, on the downside of that - there goes my excuse to knit a plethora of super soft hats, and my weight-loss plan! I guess I'll have to stick to counting calories and exercising.
So, we celebrated the good news by shipping Katrina off to Nana & Papa's house - OK that was already planned: no school tomorrow and we both have to work. Then Karl and I went out for a nice Mexican feast, and came home to an exciting evening of folding laundry. (I know, we lead such an exciting life!)
So, hopefully my surgery will be after Christmas so I don't leave my co-workers in a jam during our busiest season, I can continue planning our 20th wedding anniversary trip in May, and I'll be able to fit into some t-shirts that Karl shrunk in the wash! I'm a happy girl