No pain meds, it's just a slight dull ache now and a little itchy where they did the initial poke in my skin, but I think I'm responding to the dressing not the wound itself. I don't think I could find the actual puncture mark if there wasn't a giant black X scrawled in sharpie over it on my chest.
So the biopsy was on Monday. Yesterday a very stoned Sonya and a very sober Bob went to the second plastic surgery consultant. She was really great, but she doesn't do the diep flap. So we talked about what she would recommend for me, and she agreed that she thinks that the diep flap is the best option for me, if we can find someone who will take me as a patient. She gave me a referral to the expert at UCSF who has done several hundred of these. The issue is my size - a heavier person is the best candidate for this surgery but not toooooo heavy, and I'm right over the border.
I asked her what the reasoning is and basically it comes down to blood supply to the tissue, but she thinks the expert guy would take me because I'm very well proportioned for my size, and apparently my skin is in great shape and a scar as minimally as she's ever seen on a patient. If I carried most of my extra weight on my waist it would never happen.
The other thing she said was that she doesn't recommend doing the mastectomy and reconstruction in one go. Lots of people do it, but like the immediate lumpectomy or mastectomy for people who just found the tumor - it actually increases your chances of dying. But people do it and doctors support it for psychological reasons. Which I get.
But can I, personally, live without boobs for a couple of months? Yes. And if I can't, this is why Gawd made Xanax. Seriously.
So I've got the number for the guy at UCSF and will call him in the morning and see if I can get an appointment. If he'll do the diep flap, that's the route we'll take. If not, I'll do the lat flap (where they pull the latissmus muscles around from the back to the front) with Doctor Hobson. It's a plan. She was really awesome. She's had breast cancer herself. I asked her who did her reconstruction and she started laughing and said "who has time for that?" It's been five years.
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This morning I went to see Wexler at Alta Bates about starting AC. She changed things up a bit. Some new data has come in about doing dense dose being superior, especially in patients like me who advanced really well with taxol. This means that under the assumption that whatever comes back from the lab about my lung node (tomorrow, I hope) doesn't delay treatment, I'll be starting AC on Wednesday 11/20 at 1pm. And I'll do it every other Wednesday for four treatments, which puts the last one on New Year's Day. Which I'm sure they won't do, but I think bumping it back to NYE would actually be an awesome (although very low key) way to end the year. Because my pulse and blood pressure are still all over the map I have to get a new echocardiogram on Monday.
Tomorrow I see the pulmonary people at Stanford for what should be the last time unless I need something major done with my lung. I expect they will tell me to step down to 10 mg of prednisone (I'm on 20 now, down from 40 when we started) for a week or two , and then five for a week or two after that. And then I can give all the O2 equipment back.
After I get my lungs checked out I'm stopping off at the office to have lunch with the CMO of the company since I won our equivalent of employee of the month for marketing (-ish - I think there are five winners every quarter) Anyway, it's an opportunity to get face time with executives who don't know who I am today. So as long as I'm still feeling good, I'll be there. And they'll remember the bald lady for sure.
Friday I have no medical stuff! It's a miracle. But I'm having lunch with Mo and we'll start planning out the lotsa helping hands site stuff for real, because now we're getting to where I'm really going to need it.
So the biopsy was on Monday. Yesterday a very stoned Sonya and a very sober Bob went to the second plastic surgery consultant. She was really great, but she doesn't do the diep flap. So we talked about what she would recommend for me, and she agreed that she thinks that the diep flap is the best option for me, if we can find someone who will take me as a patient. She gave me a referral to the expert at UCSF who has done several hundred of these. The issue is my size - a heavier person is the best candidate for this surgery but not toooooo heavy, and I'm right over the border.
I asked her what the reasoning is and basically it comes down to blood supply to the tissue, but she thinks the expert guy would take me because I'm very well proportioned for my size, and apparently my skin is in great shape and a scar as minimally as she's ever seen on a patient. If I carried most of my extra weight on my waist it would never happen.
The other thing she said was that she doesn't recommend doing the mastectomy and reconstruction in one go. Lots of people do it, but like the immediate lumpectomy or mastectomy for people who just found the tumor - it actually increases your chances of dying. But people do it and doctors support it for psychological reasons. Which I get.
But can I, personally, live without boobs for a couple of months? Yes. And if I can't, this is why Gawd made Xanax. Seriously.
So I've got the number for the guy at UCSF and will call him in the morning and see if I can get an appointment. If he'll do the diep flap, that's the route we'll take. If not, I'll do the lat flap (where they pull the latissmus muscles around from the back to the front) with Doctor Hobson. It's a plan. She was really awesome. She's had breast cancer herself. I asked her who did her reconstruction and she started laughing and said "who has time for that?" It's been five years.
------------------------------------
This morning I went to see Wexler at Alta Bates about starting AC. She changed things up a bit. Some new data has come in about doing dense dose being superior, especially in patients like me who advanced really well with taxol. This means that under the assumption that whatever comes back from the lab about my lung node (tomorrow, I hope) doesn't delay treatment, I'll be starting AC on Wednesday 11/20 at 1pm. And I'll do it every other Wednesday for four treatments, which puts the last one on New Year's Day. Which I'm sure they won't do, but I think bumping it back to NYE would actually be an awesome (although very low key) way to end the year. Because my pulse and blood pressure are still all over the map I have to get a new echocardiogram on Monday.
Tomorrow I see the pulmonary people at Stanford for what should be the last time unless I need something major done with my lung. I expect they will tell me to step down to 10 mg of prednisone (I'm on 20 now, down from 40 when we started) for a week or two , and then five for a week or two after that. And then I can give all the O2 equipment back.
After I get my lungs checked out I'm stopping off at the office to have lunch with the CMO of the company since I won our equivalent of employee of the month for marketing (-ish - I think there are five winners every quarter) Anyway, it's an opportunity to get face time with executives who don't know who I am today. So as long as I'm still feeling good, I'll be there. And they'll remember the bald lady for sure.
Friday I have no medical stuff! It's a miracle. But I'm having lunch with Mo and we'll start planning out the lotsa helping hands site stuff for real, because now we're getting to where I'm really going to need it.
Let me know what you and Mo come up with tomorrow. I now have more time.
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