Now What Do I Do?

By the time Monday rolled around, I had a BS in Breast Cancer Etiology and Treatment. Had a terrible time sleeping. I would wake up at 2AM then roll around for 1-2 hours until I would finally get up. Back on the internet. So I surfed Monday AM until the Breast Center opened. I did have to go into my office that day so I started driving to the Breast Center, called and went in to see my nurse navigator. Tricia is a Princess. She is the reason I am not on death row for murdering my doctor.

She explained what the diagnosis meant, she explained what the next steps should be and when I left 45 minutes later I had the following:
1. a 2:00 appointment that day for a bi-lateral breast MRI
2. an appointment with a breast surgeon Wed. at 2 PM.
3. an appointment with the radiological oncologist Tue. at 11
4. already had the onc appointment (made it Friday)
5. Control of my life again

I already had the onc appointment on Thursday so I went to the office and did my thing. Back to St Anthonys for the MRI. One thing for those of you who don't know me real well: I hate needles and have been known to pass out cold, hyperventilate, jerk, cry, scream, etc. I had no clue this test would involve a needle.

I arrive. It is about 56 degrees in the room and I do have my socks and shoes on but I am FREEZING! They do give me a blanket, thank God, then they have me lie face down with my face in a holder and each breast in its own little compartment. Kind of cool, actually. Well, an additional complication is I am semi-claustrophobic. Add a needle to that and it's only a matter of time until I am hyperventilating and/or screaming. The very nice lady manages to get a small (thank God) needle into my wrist semi-painlessly. She then explains that the test is about 5 minutes of me holding my breath while they take various pictures. Then the rest of the test is 30 min of me holding very still for 3 min, 5 min, 8 min, etc. Right. Those who know me well are laughing hysterically at this. The Arch staying still for 45 minutes? Right.

In they slide me. I am REALLY not liking being in a tube but the face-down head-holder has a little mirror in the bottom so I can see what's at the end of the tube. Guess what's there? The gunk they are going to inject me with. HooRah. Now I am freaking about that. Anyway they do a few pix then she comes back in and shoots the stuff in. She did tell me that the stuff would feel cool hitting my arm but what she didn't tell me was that after 5 minutes or so, my face would get really flushed. When the flush hit, it was very disorienting and it made me very nauseous. (while injecting she did tell me not to move or they would have to do the whole test from the beginning..this is an all or nothing test). Remembering her warning, I told myself 'You are not sick, you are not sick, you are not sick'. It passed.

So she had put these headphones on me PLUS earplugs and asked what kind of music I liked. Said I didn't care. When the machine started up, it sounded like a very bad techno club and the music in the headphones was inaudible. I mean the noise level was like a hundred times louder than the loudest lowrider you ever heard and I am not kidding!

Man was I glad when that was over.

On to the Rad Onc the next day. Went to him on the recommendation of my buds at the Breast Center. They like him. Come to find out later they like him because women who have radiation from him have great cosmetic results on their breasts. But what they really like him for is he is easy on the eyes. He really is.

He explained what the treatment consisted of and how long, etc. and that was that.

Next day was the surgeon. My husband, Marty, came with me. He had reviewed the biopsy pathology and the mammos and ultra-sound and ran through the treatment options. 1. Mastectomy 2. Double Mastectomy 3. Lumpectomy

We discussed and as I have large breasts, a mast would require at least a reduction on the other boob (to prevent back problems), I wanted a lump. He agreed and we walked down to be scheduled for surgery. This is May 5. She said 'How about May 10?' I was like 'YIKES!" but he had nothing until May 18 so I took it.

On to the oncologist the next day. He just explained to me what he does starts after surgery and the path report comes back. He feeds the data into Adjuvant Online and the program determines what percentage of recurrance risk reduction each type of chemo/hormone therapy would provide. BTW this one is easy on the eyes as well. In fact, so was the surgeon. He was the hottest though (surgeon). I digress.

The consensus of the docs, based on the pathology of the biopsy and the location of the tumor, is that I will not need chemo and that I am a candidate for Mammosite radiation.

Home to freak out and start working on my Masters in Breast Cancer studies.