Never thought I'd want to be a breast cancer survivor
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Lab results
Read more: Lab resultsAfter a slightly frustrating Tuesday, I did receive the lab report first this Wednesday morning. It was really helpful to be able to read the report and process the information – especially given the way the surgeon will rush through things if I don’t slow her down. She took a huge chunk out of me…
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Healing takes time
Read more: Healing takes timeIt can be really frustrating to remind myself that healing takes time. I got my drain out on Tuesday – yay. In addition to removing the drain, she also removed the steristrips over the incision. When I got home, I saw the incision for the first time. I knew it was bigger than my previous…
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Denial is a powerful tool
Read more: Denial is a powerful toolI’m mostly in denial at the moment – in some ways feeling the “impostor syndrome” that I felt before I had my initial diagnosis. I know there is something, but part of me is still thinking that just maybe, the biopsy will come back saying we made a mistake and there isn’t any cancer. It…
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Healing Notes
Read more: Healing NotesI had my surgery follow up appointment with my surgeon Tuesday. Unfortunately, I’m still producing too much fluid for my drain to be removed. This means that I still cannot shower. However, they did remove the dressings over the incision except the steristrips. I now have the magic number – 30mL – when my drain…
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Surgery update
Read more: Surgery updateSurgery happened yesterday (Wednesday). I’m doing remarkably well today. The surgery was more involved than I anticipated. I had been thinking of it as similar to a sentinel node dissection, but it was closer to a lumpectomy. What do I mean by that? The incision was bigger (she went in the original incision but had…
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I have a date
Read more: I have a dateAfter another very anxiety filled week, things came together on Thursday afternoon and Friday. I finally feel like there is more of a plan. First off, I will have surgery on Wednesday. I don’t yet know what time. It is listed as right axillary node dissection. The diagnosis is recurrent breast cancer. It will be…
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Anxiety kicking in and a weekend folk festival
Read more: Anxiety kicking in and a weekend folk festivalMy anxiety levels are starting to increase, and will likely ratchet up during the week. One thing that is causing me the increase in anxiety is the lack of information coming from my surgeon’s office. I don’t feel like they have a whole lot of empathy for what I might be going through. There are…
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A deep breath
Read more: A deep breathYesterday was a day of breakdowns. It started with a phone call from my family doctor’s nurse. She was giving me an update on something totally unrelated to cancer, but all I wanted was the results of my bone scan. She confirmed that the results were in but could not give them to me until…
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Sunday, I took a mental health day
Read more: Sunday, I took a mental health dayI woke up on early Saturday morning from a stress dream. I dreamed about learning more about the surgery and it not being what I expected. What I remember most from the dream was that I was expecting a 2-hour surgery and they said it was going to be a 9-hour surgery. Upon waking, I…
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Local recurrence for now …
Read more: Local recurrence for now …I met with the local surgeon for my first consult. I wasn’t sure what kind of biopsy we would be doing. She informed me that we are treating this like a local recurrence of breast cancer. That is most likely what we are dealing with, so the initial treatment plan is based on that. In…
