Dr.'s Visits and a peek at my new "girls"

Today G and I visited both of my surgeons.

We first met with my reconstructive surgeon Dr. Ferguson. He asked me if I had taken a peek under the bandages. I told him I didn't think I was quite ready for that yet. I knew I had said goodbye to my old "gals" but didn't think I was emotionally strong enough to see my new "mounds". He told me then to close my eyes and I didn't need to look. He removed the bandages and I watched G's face to see his reaction. I was a little worried for him because I think he was more attached to the old "gals" than I was. I could see the surprise and relief on his face and knew that it couldn't be that bad. We were happily surprised that there was only one incision on each breast about 3-4 inches long. It was also nice to see that the reconstruction process had begun and Dr. Ferguson mentioned how good the "mounds" were doing.

We were glad that I was doing well enough that he could remove one of my drains from each side and he was also able to add an additional 60 cc's to each tissue expander.

One of the hard parts about this situation is my inability to keep my level of physical fitness where it was before my surgery because I can't exercise yet. But because I had worked so hard over the last couple of years and am in pretty good shape, the Dr. has asked if I would be willing to allow them to take pictures each step of the process so he can use them as he consults with other patients about their options and he can show them how they can expect their experience to go. I feel good that he would ask me because it means that he believes my situation will end up well. I will continue to see Dr. Ferguson weekly.

G and I then went and had some lunch before our appointment with Dr. Rasmussen who did the mastectomy so he could check on my progress and go over the operation and my pathology report.

Dr. Rasmussen let G and I know that after the surgery he was certain that our decision to do the mastectomy was the right one. He was really pleased with my progress.

As we went over the pathology report I was excited to hear that he thought the surgery was certainly a success. There were two cancerous tumors removed along with all the breast tissue. The larger of the two was 0.9 cm and the smaller was 0.5. Both of them were relatively small. I'm so glad I caught it as early as I did. He also mentioned again that the lymph nodes that were removed and tested were clear and there was no evidence of cancerous cells in them. The only thing that caused him concern was that there was evidence that one of the tumors was intravenously invasive, meaning that some of it had gotten into a small portion of my veins. This is why I'm still going to have to deal with chemotherapy.

They have staged the cancer as stage 1 with intravenous invasive so it is borderline stage 2. Still sounds a little scary but that is also good news. It could have been so much worse.

The next step is to meet with the medical oncologist and discuss further treatment.

The news we received today was good and it was nice to be leaving the hospital feeling better than when we got there this morning. I left lighter on my feet and an itsy, bitsy bit heavier in the chest.

Hugs and Kisses all around.

Chandy