Power Outage

Sorry I haven't updated the blog for a few days. We were without electricity from Wednesday night until Friday evening. We were so happy when the power came on around 7pm last night.

Wednesday, Jesse and I went to a consultation at a plastic surgeon in Colleyville. He examined me and told me what he was willing to do. He only gave me one option and used words like "disfigured", "never look natural", etc. I was not impressed with him at all. I left feeling a bit discouraged.

Thursday, I went in for the genetics test. It was pouring rain and I got drenched going from my car to the door. I went back for my testing and the doctor there went over everything. She explained to me what they were looking for, why, and how it would be useful in my decision making and treatment. She also explained to me how knowing could help reduce my family's chances of cancer. They were very thorough. All that was required to do the test was a signature and a tube of blood. I'm starting to look like a human pin cushion with all these IV's and blood draws!

Thursday afternoon, we went back to Dr Brian's office and she checked my biopsy site to make sure it was healing well. All was fine there. She had the results back from the MRI, and it was good news. They did not find any other suspicious areas in either breast. Only one worrisome thing, is that they suspect it may be in the lymph node under my arm. There is no way to know for sure until they do the sentinel node biopsy during my surgery.

Friday, I went to Harris HEB for my CT Scan and Whole Body Scan. When I arrived at 7:30 they brought me back and injected the contrast for the Whole Body Scan. It needed to be in my system for about 3 hours or so before they could do the whole body scan. They went ahead and did the CT Scan in the meantime. It was just a donut shaped thing they moved me in and out of. There was an automated voice and these goofy green emoticons that told you when to hold your breath. It was hard not to laugh. Once they were done with that one, they let me go for a while and I was able to get some breakfast. We went back at 11am for the whole body scan.

The whole body scan was long and boring, but nothing too horrible. They put you on a flat board on a track and it slowly moves you along and takes pictures. It starts at your head and creeps along. You can barely tell you are moving. It takes a complete image of your entire skeleton from head to toe and the contrast they gave me makes the inside of the bones show up. They use this test to look for cancer in the bones. I should have results from both tests early next week.

Friday afternoon, we went over to my dad's house for a bit and took a little break from the heat. Our electricity was still off and it was hot and humid. We swam and charged up all our devices. While I was over there, I called MD Anderson again and left another voice mail.

MD Anderson called me back and I got good news! They said they can do the second opinion for me. They can get it done in two days even. I am scheduled to go in July 6th and July 7th. They want to do their own mammogram and ultrasounds on July 6th, but they can use all the other test results, including the biopsy slides that I already have. They will have another pathologist review the slides, provide me a new pathology report showing their diagnosis, and I will meet with one of their breast surgeons to discuss treatment options on July 7. I think I will have all the information I need to make good decisions on surgery and treatment after that is completed.

This coming Tuesday, I am going to go meet with another plastic/reconstruction surgeon. I saw some of this surgeons work when I talked to Dr Brian on Thursday. She had a book of before and after results and if he can do as well for me I'd be able to definitely live with it. Jesse has to work that day, but I've asked my sister to come along with me. I'll try to blog and let everyone know how that goes on Tuesday.