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6: Another Small Milestone |
November 19, 2004
Yesterday I saw Dr. Rao (oncologist) and she went over my chemotherapy treatment with me. She reiterated the fact that I would only need four sessions of both Cyclophosphamide and Adriamycin, followed up by five years of Tamoxifen. She said my treatments would take about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Not too bad. I was really relieved because I was banking on what she had told me on my first visit, that if there were no cancer cells in my lymph nodes, I would only need four treatments. Great news!! I start on December 2nd and I’ll be done by the end of February if everything stays on schedule.
Later in the day I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Chatson (plastic surgeon). Hum, pleasure, well maybe not so much.... He removed my last drain which I thought was going to hurt because the first one that was removed earlier did, extremely. I couldn’t believe he was walking away from me with it in his hands. I didn’t feel a thing. Nothing! I’m still quite numb but I still thought I’d feel it. Next he drained my left breast, again. Just two days prior, 178 ccs were removed from it, and today he removed 50 ccs. The fluid is just my body trying to recover from the surgery. That’s what the drains are for, but on that side, the drain never worked. Then he injected my expanders with saline. There wasn’t a lot of pain today, just a bunch of negative anticipation that there would be. The expenders presented extreme pressure, then some pain later in the evening, but I thought the procedure was going to be very painful. It wasn’t bad. It’ll be easier next time because I won’t be so tense. I felt more nervous going into this appointment than I felt going in for the major surgery. Boy does my body feel it today! I ache all over, not just my chest. I felt like I regressed about 10 days last night, although today is much better. OK, I’m a candy-ass.
I learned today that I’m going to get pumped up every Thursday, until I’m satisfied with my new chest. The silver lining to this whole situation is that I get to choose the size of my new bosom. I’m finally going to have the chest of an adult, not a 13 year old. Yahoo!! The down side is that I’m going to be having my chemo on Thursdays as well, so that should make for some pretty crappy pay days. Hopefully I won’t need too many expander appointments, or maybe I can skip the chemo days. Dr. Chatson won’t put the final implants in until I’m finished with chemo anyway, so he’ll have until the end of February to fill them. I could be gi-normous by then (my daughter taught me that word, I’m sure you can figure it out). Truly, I won’t be going overboard. Wish me luck for next Wednesday. I’m seeing Dr. Chatson that day instead, because of Thanksgiving. I’ll be in touch.
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Lisa, NH
Infiltrating (or invasive) Ductal Carcinoma (IDC)
Chapters
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“These are the stories of Hope in the battle against Breast Cancer” |
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