The Shit Keeps Rolling In

I met with two surgeons and a medical oncologist today. Here's the gist:

• The larger tumor is in the left breast and is too close to the pectoral muscle, so chemo and herceptin comes first in order to shrink the tumor;
• After 4 months of chemo (so long to my hair), surgery, most likely a bilateral mastectomy and hopefully reconstruction, will be done at the same time.

Because the MRI doesn't show enlarged lymph nodes, the opinion of all of the doctors who have seen the test results is that likely there is no lymph node involvement, but this will be confirmed during surgery. If the biopsy of the newly-found suspicious areas in the right breast show cancerous cells, a sentinel node biopsy of the those lymph nodes will also be done.

I feel like I've chosen an excellent doctor and medical oncologist.  Dr. Christine Teal at George Washington University Hospital will be my breast surgeon, and thank God these places have what is called a breast care navigator to help coordinate all the tests and procedures (this duty alone can kill a patient).  I also met with Dr. Hernan Vargas at Inova Fairfax and he was excellent as well. But unfortunately, the many drives I would have to make to Fairfax (about 45 minutes) for the many appointments would have only added to the frustration.

Tomorrow is the next biopsy and hopefully next week will be the various scans and a heart echocardiogram, along with blood work, to make sure my heart and body are healthy enough for chemo.  Finally, they'll put a port in for easy access for chemo -- I've already told the oncologist that I am extremely needle phobic and it'd be better for everyone involved if I were under conscious sedation for this part.  I often have a hard time convincing people that I really will faint if you poke me -- I've been known to faint while laying down -- but this doctor got the point right away. Thank God.

So I'm exhausted and grateful to my friend Jo Ann for coming with me for all 10 hours of this day.  As promised I fed her well (Founding Farmers on Pennsylvania Avenue).

I'm just hoping this is the end of the shit rolling in. I could use a little good news for Christ sake.