First, I finished my last Herceptin treatment on November 7! Again, it was an emotional day, ringing the bell again. I was sure that I had another treatment the end of November but when I went for my appointment on the 7th, my nurse told me it was the last one. I rang the bell with my nurses as Jason didn't come because he thought I had one more. So, now that I am totally finished IV treatments, I was able to get my port removed last week. I went into surgery around 1:20pm in the afternoon and got out around 2:30pm. The doctor asked if I wanted to keep my port, (was that really something people did?) I decided that it would be neat to keep it. It was my life line for an entire year...it saved my veins from the poison of Chemo and it provided doctors an access point for blood work and other tests...saving me from being pricked over and over. So, yes I decided to keep it...the boys think it's pretty cool! So, two more milestones reached on this journey! :)
Now, to the not so great stuff. Since I returned from vacation in August, I have been having some pain in my chest on my mastectomy side. It's like a sharp pain that shoots from the front to my back when I take a deep breath or move a certain way. It comes and goes so I wasn't overly concerned. When I told my nurse, she told me that I should have it checked out. So, my doctor scheduled a bone scan and a CT scan. I had my bone scan on November 1 and my CT scan two weeks later. Now my nurse usually calls me with results when she has them but I wasn't hearing back from her after my bone scan. (and the tech told me that my results would be in the system that night)...I had a feeling at this point that something was wrong because the technician kept asking me if I had an accident in the past 6 months. They had to take numerous pictures of my right side and kept asking if I had fallen or if I injured that side. Not a good feeling! :(Finally, it was time for my CT scan and after my scan I went to see my Chemo nurse. I told him that I didn't hear results from my bone scan so he was kind enough to print a copy of my results and give them to me. Now I know why you are not supposed to receive results from anyone but your doctor. The results were that they found "activity" on my eighth, ninth and tenth ribs. They stated that there was mild activity found on my last scan (August 2012) but not enough to be noted. This test showed that the activity was increased. Well, lets just say that I was in a complete daze driving home from the hospital. All I could think of was that the cancer had spread and I now had it in my bones. What would I do? What would I tell the boys? How was Jason going to deal with this? It was like I was in a fog trying to make it to the clear and I couldn't get there. I couldn't think straight...and probably shouldn't have been driving. I made it home safely and sat and cried for over an hour. I called Jason and he decided to come home from work to be with me. I called my Oncology nurse and asked her for my results (I didn't want her to know that I already saw them)...and she told me she couldn't give them to me over the phone....and they were waiting on the results from my CT scan. She asked me to call her back on Thursday (this was Tuesday) and she should have all the results back. My world was thrown into a spin and I felt like I was loosing control of what I had worked so hard to maintain for the past year.
Thursday came and I called my nurse first thing in the morning...of course that was too early for her to know anything so she told me to call back in the afternoon. I called back again around 1:00pm and she told me that they had to call the radiologist on call to review my tests. Oh my God!!!! Could it get any worse...waiting for results has got to be the most agonizing thing in the world! I called her back at 4:00pm and my CT scan showed no spread of cancer and that what they had seen on my ribs was "likely" scar tissue. It's been hard to revert my mind back to the positive, but I have been working hard at it for the past couple of weeks. I don't want to think that they might be wrong...and what if. I just want to continue with my life and enjoy every minute.
So, I think I told you all about Malina (my plastic surgeon's patient that is going through the same reconstruction process that I am). She had her surgery to remove her "good" breast and have the expander/implant put in place. Her surgery was on October 15 and she told me to give her a few weeks of recovery before calling to see how she made out. I gave it a month and called her. She is over the moon happy with her image! She said it was very unpleasant and that she had a good 3 weeks of not being able to do anything. She couldn't even get out of bed without someone helping her. She had a fair amount of pain and had her drains in for almost 3 weeks. She was starting to feel better and get around a bit more when I was talking with her (at 4 weeks). The one thing she said..."I don't regret a thing!" She loves the results and she loved Dr. Semple!
Today, I received my call from Dr. Semple's office...my reconstruction is about to begin!! I have my pre-op next Thursday, December 12 and my first fat grafting procedure is scheduled for January 7th!! OMG I am so excited I can barely contain myself!! Leslie, Dr. Semple's secretary, called to give me my first and second appointments for the fat grafting, with my second being April 8th. This is really happening!!! I am getting my new boobies and I couldn't be happier!! Lots will be going on over the next month and I will try my best to keep you all posted and will post pictures as well.
It's been a long road and it's not over yet...but I see that my life is definitely moving in the right direction! :)
Be positive, be strong and please continue to pray for all the people struggling to get through this terrible disease!
No comments:
Post a Comment