December 8th is the date...
Post November 26, 2022
I have a surgery date – Thursday, December 8, 2022. I am extremely grateful for being able to get in 4.5 weeks from diagnosis. At one time I got an indication one of the surgeons was booking mid February and unless this was an emergency, it was unlikely I would get my surgery done any earlier. I flat out said “that is not going to work for me” and placed a phone call to the scheduler and sent the surgeon a note. I’m not afraid of this very serious surgery, but I am afraid of living with cancer and giving it any opportunity to grow and become invasive. When they came back with December 8, I gladly put it on the calendar.
I had my MRI last Monday. I’m not claustrophobic, so that didn’t bother me. However, getting into position on my stomach laying on hard plastic with my arms outstretched Superman style for 30 minutes and lying still wasn’t super awesome. There were hard plastic boob holes. Yes, I said it – I kept thinking well, they’ve thought of everything. They put earplugs and headphones on me and asked if the soft piano music was okay. I joked, “it would be better if you had 80s pop, but this will work”. Little did I know they had a Pandora subscription and yes, 80s pop was an option. I had to make sure I didn’t move wanting to bounce to Phil Collins’ Easy Lover. It was fine though the dismount from the MRI machine perhaps wasn’t my most graceful, but I now had the harder part…waiting for the results. I was told that once again, once the radiologist had read it I would receive the results in MyChart at the same time my surgeon received the report and could expect a call soon after. Monday afternoon around 4:30PM I was parking my car at the cemetery when the results came in. I said “Mom, we are going to review these together”. With hands shaking I frantically googled the terms in the diagnosis and without being a doctor to know for sure – I had reason to believe the results were good. The next day I got the call from the surgeon confirming it was good news.
Lymph nodes look clean, right breast looks clean, left breast – they saw what we already knew existed and nothing more detected. She said sometimes the biopsy shows it as cells – but a mass formed, but in my case it was still cells…no mass formed. And no visible spread. Exactly the news I had been hoping for. A major sigh of relief.
My plans are set. Thursday, December 8 I will go to Fairview Southdale and will be in the care of excellent surgeons. Jolene Singh will perform the double mastectomy (including the lymph nodes on the left side since they’re connected to the affected breast) and Timothy Schaefer will perform the reconstruction. I believe it will take 5-6 hours in total – it’s going to be a significant endeavor. I expect to spend 2 nights in the hospital before returning home. I’ve done everything I can to prepare.
I have purchased all kinds of things that I apparently need or things that will help make recovery a little easier. I have my first 3 follow up appointments with the reconstruction surgeon scheduled, my first appointment with the oncologist scheduled and I even have my first two PT appointments scheduled. I get to go back to Katie, my PT who saved me from dual disc replacement surgery a handful of years ago. I have continued my fierce commitment to exercise, including strength training. I know I’ll be starting from scratch with arm mobility post-surgery, but I have to imagine pectoral, shoulder and back strength going in can only help with recovery. If not – I’ll mentally feel better going in. I always loved the Rocky Movies – there’s something about overcoming mental and physical challenge by putting yourself in your best fighting shape. And – I am a sucker for Survivor and Eye of the Tiger, so I’ll just channel that for motivation.
Two big pieces of information are still outstanding.
1. When they do the double mastectomy they will test the tissue for cancer cells we aren’t aware of. If nothing is found, I believe the oncology protocol will be MRIs every 6 months at first and then once/year to screen for any cells that went undetected and were missed. There shouldn’t be any, but the reason they say chances of recurrence are under 1% (but not 0) are that this can happen. Low odds, I’ll take them. If they do find cells in the tissue they extract I believe it would mean hormone therapy for 5 years to keep cancer away. Less ideal than the “you’re good” plan – but doable.
2. BRCA testing. On November 11, I had genetic testing for the BRCA gene. Without family history I never bothered to test for this before. But now – I have reason to test. Being Jewish of Ashkenazic descent (100% Ashkenazic Jew) puts me at greater risk for this gene. If positive, there is a high correlation to other cancers – including ovarian and uterine. If I’m positive, I will have to plan for additional surgeries, but not today. Clearly, if I’m positive, Gracie will need to be tested and that is terrifying for me. One step at a time. They said results come back about 2 weeks from the lab draw. That would have been yesterday, but with Thanksgiving, I expected the delay. Probably this coming week. No matter what it shows, I need to keep my head in the game and focus on December 8 and recovering (for now).
Believe it or not, my head is in a really good place. I’m very confident in the decision I’ve made, in the surgeons I have, the plans that have been made, and the incredible support system I have – at work, at home and in my friends and family network. Marc knows what I like to eat and he’s highly familiar with making my favorites. That part will be pretty straightforward. He has warned me that my OCD control of how the dishwasher is loaded and my inability to be the dishwasher loader is going to be his guilty pleasure. He intends to go totally rogue and load the dishwasher in all sorts of clever ways and then text the photos to me to torment me. His theory that the dishes will still get clean even if he loads the dishwasher in the most random, inefficient way is about to be proven, much to my dismay. But hey, even I know – sometimes you just have to let others help you (even if it drives you nuts) 😊.
One of my colleagues said, “cancer fucked with the wrong person”. I love that and am going to prove her right.
Pam
