Just too much drama for me!

So yesterday's surgery was by far the worst so far. I should have known that because the surgeon told me that every time we do this, he doubles the amount of mass he removes. The surgery lasted much longer, they removed a lot of tissue and gave me demerol (sp?) to boot. (The demerol was horrible! I was dizzy til like 5 p.m. and the surgery was at 7:30 a.m.) And I'm really in the same boat as I was after the mri. I'll get the biopsy results Tues. If the margins are clear, they'll wait til I heal from surgery and then start radiation. (The only unknown on that front is that they removed so much yesterday that the cavity has filled with fluid. The surgeon said it will take a few weeks til that fluid is gone before they know how much is umm... missing? So there may need to be some sort of balancing act to do and I don't know what that will involve.) If the margins are not clear, then it's a masectomy. Really, this is just too much drama for me. I liked my quiet life...

I do have to say, though, that I feel like I have the very best family and friends in the entire world. The entire universe. The entire cosmos. I cannot believe how nice people have been and continue to be. Your thoughtfulness is overwhelming. Literally overwhelming. Notes, emails, cookies, dinner, bread, flowers, jokes, babysitting, thoughts and prayers. I don't know how I will ever be able to pay this all forward. But when I'm better, I'm sure going to try. Thank you all so, so much.

Good news and bad news

The good news: the mri did not show the cancer to be everywhere. Bad news: it really only showed the spot where they already knew it had been...so not sure if it's just showing post-surgery trauma and not picking up the cancer, or if that really is the only spot where the cancer is... So, more surgery this Thurs. (1/28). He'll take out another centimeter around the last spot and then---hopefully---- we'll get clear margins. I can tell this is good news because I'm not crying. :) Not excited for another of these surgeries, but it's better than the alternative. I don't know what will happen if the margins don't come back clear this next time... but I can guess. So here's hoping for clear margins!!

Grrrr....

No results today. The dr's office closed at 2. Rats.

Lousy health issue

So maybe I will start updating my blog again so I can put updates on here about my new health drama. So this is the story... had a mammogram in Nov., results were questionable, they sent me for another in Dec., and found a cluster of microcalcifications. For some reason I don't quite understand, because the area was so close to the skin, they did not want to do a traditional biopsy, opting instead to just remove the whole small section (about the size of a gumball.) They then biopsied that and the results were DCIS (ductal incarcimoma in situ)-- earliest, most treatable form of breast cancer. Barely breast cancer. Sometimes it's not even referred to as cancer, but just precancer. They didn't get clear margins when they took out the first section, so they went back in a week later, took some more out, thinking the margins would then be clear and I would start radiation in a month or so. But those plans were shot when the margins did not come back clear, but instead revealed more cancer areas. :( Rats. So yesterday I went for an mri and that brings us to today. I am waiting for the phone to ring to let me know the results of the mri. The cancer areas they found in the second surgery did not show up on the mammogram, so hopefully they will show up on the mri and then they/we can make a new plan. Hopefully I get results today. Cause if I don't get them today, I won't hear anything til Tues. (Surgeon isn't in on Mondays.) So, best case scenario: more surgery and then radiation. Worst case scenario: masectomy. Important things to know: survival rate for this type of precancer/ cancer is 100%. I'm not going to die. Also, the cancer is completely contained in my boob. It has not spread to any other part of my body. Okay. And that would be all for now. Ho hum....