The Road Changed Directions
The Mandi Chair
It appears that I have been assigned to the high risk breast cancer team at Huntsman – the Oncologist I was assigned to, Saundra S. Buys, is the Director of the High Risk Cancer Clinic. This has left all sorts of questions floating around in my brain. I tried calling the nurses this morning. They hadn’t responded to my email request for the hormone receptors on my cancer cells. I left them a message.
This led to the following questions (I just got the phone call with the answers):
- Did my genetic test come back? No
- Is there something about my tumor that I don’t know? It is ER Estrogen positive (90%) PR Progesterone positive (70%)
- Did the biopsy of the lymph node come back with further information? Yes, the cancer is definitely in my lymph nodes. I will have a CT and several lab tests for staging tomorrow. I may start chemo super fast at this point.
- Am I going to have to have chemo before surgery? The answer is most likely yes, pretty much for sure. Most likely my surgery will be canceled. I am not sure what this will mean about my reconstruction options.
- What does this mean about my stage? Let’s not think the unthinkable, but I am not in a super happy zone of easy recover (not that recovery is ever “easy”) I believe the terminology used related to my treatment involved the words “kitchen sink.”
From my understanding of today’s conversation the doctors feel like waiting to start the chemo for another 3-4 weeks it would take to recover from surgery is a risk they aren’t willing to take. This also means they will know how much the chemo had an impact on the originating tumor before they take it out.
Laura, the quilt pattern and my wedding dress (in bag).
I don’t believe I noted that we managed to get a major snag on a black leather recliner that matches our couches off of KSL.com for only $75! It is incredibly comfortable and it fits me and two dogs comfortably (chairs that don’t fit the dogs and I, tend to end up a bit crowded because they decide they are going to sit by me no matter how uncomfortable it is). I have already taken over the “Mandi chair.”
Now for my happy thing this week. Laura, who is on my paid search team and a super awesome employee at work, has been finagled by me to make a quilt/wall hanging out of my wedding dress. She did it with her own dress and I thought it was a great idea! Otherwise the dress just sits in my closet taking up space – and I am fairly certain that it won’t be hand me down material as tastes change significantly. I think everything going on has made me a bit more sentimental and I really think a nice piece of art made out of my dress would be lovely to have on the wall and to someday pass on to family members as an heirloom. I am seriously super excited about this! Laura has an Etsy site: http://www.etsy.com/shop/happystitchesbylaura she does super cute baby car seat covers if you are interested.
I will update when I have the energy to do so, or talk Mike into it. Tomorrow is going to be the long day of preparations for the kitchen sink. I wonder if they will be ok if I start throwing lemons at it?
Update:
I like this ribbon better. (OMG! Laura is already working on my dress)
