cancer treatments pre chemo....

me before this all starts....working out relatively regularly...very happy with life














this is the love of my life..he who sticks by me through everything...comforts me, protects me, holds me when i cry or feel down, makes sure i'm eating well, getting my vitamins and minerals, goes to my appointments with me, stays with me in the hospital, loves me more than anyone has every been able to show before (the way i need to be loved, no less), knows me, understands me (as well as anyone can), feels me, moves me...(i could go on forever...bret truly is wonderful)...in any case, this is him

:D








so, this is how it begins....

• August 18, 2007: i find a lump in my right boob
• August 20, 2007: i go to my primary care physician to have the exam so she can have a mammogram and ultrasound scheduled for me
• August 21, 2007: i find out that there is a concerning looking mass in my boob, so we have to schedule a core biopsy with the surgeon
• August 22, 2007: core biopsy takes place
• August 24, 2007: the pathologist doesn't see any cancerous cells, but there is a lot of enflamed tissue in the core samples
• August 28, 2007: i meet with the surgeon and we schedule the first excisional biopsy to get the mass out and have the thing tested in its entirety
• August 30,2007: excisional biopsy done
• August 31, 2007: i get a call from the surgeons nurse telling me that the test came back positive for breast cancer, and i tell my family
• September 20, 2007: have the lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy, they find cancer cells in the sentinel node and take the auxiliary node cluster from under my arm. i am admitted to the hospital over night, and have a drain for the lymph fluid.
• September 26, 2007: go to the surgeon to have the drain removed. strangely enough, when they pull the drain they find that there was a blockage in it, and i get a waterfall of warm lymph fluid gushing down my side, all over my jeans. it takes over 15 minuted to get all the fluid that has built up out of me, and the wounds are dressed.
  i also find out that one of the 14 auxiliary nodes came up positive for cancer cells, but less than 1mm. that is a good sign.
• every other day from here until October 4, 2007, i go to the surgeon to have the fluid manually drained from under my armpit where the lymph nodes were removed.
  
• October 4, 2007: i met with the oncologist to discuss the treatment options they suggest, go over the options, look at my prognosis and have my baseline exam with her. i find out that she is married to my surgeon and that she and i see things a lot the same way. my surgeon comes down to find me in my oncologists office so he can drain the fluid for me while i am meeting with his wife...great service! bret and i leave the oncologists office with a lot of information, and new appointments for more tests before i have to get the portacath implanted and can start the treatment that we choose to go through.
• October 9, 2007: head off to the hospital again, after working in the morning, and drinking two berry smoothies (barium shakes for the CT scan...yuck), only to get to the hospital, changed into the gown and pants they give me, lay on the CT scan table...and have them REPEATEDLY MISS vein after vein in my left arm trying to get the IV in....my veins are just too small for the medium sized catheter they were trying to feed into my arm. after 4 attempts and one majorly blown vein (the only one that was worth sticking in the first place), i told them that i was done and going the fuck home. all tests were cancelled for the day.

here we are...this is me today:

i am looking to have a CT friendly portacath implanted on thursday, October 18...then a CT and Bone scan on the 23rd...the muga scan for my heart on the 25th...and the follow-up with my oncologist on the 26th....at that point, we will schedule the start of my chemo treatments...