Dr. Suthers

Met with the surgeon today.  We both really liked her, too.  She reminds me of my life long friend, Margaret.

She spent a good hour and a half in the room with us, explaining everything.  She did a manual exam of my breasts, and pointed out on my actual body where the incisions will be, and that sort of thing.

The good news is that recovery from a double mastectomy (which was the expected recommendation--I'm fine with that and have settled my mind about it) is a lot easier than I anticipated.  After a week with drains coming out of my chest, and possibly arm pit, I can return to normal activity almost immediately, with no restrictions on lifting or movement.

She wants me to stretch and do my yoga, and go back to work whenever I am ready.

This is awesome news.....I had no idea what to expect, of course, but had thought I'd not be allowed to get any exercise for at least a few weeks.

The bad news is, she is recommending pre-surgical chemo, and she said that most likely the type of chemo will be the one everyone is terrified of.  The one that makes you sick, and makes your hair fall out.

She said that's obviously the oncologist's call, but that in her experience, that's what will probably happen.

SO, I am freaking out about that a little.

My first surgery will now no longer be the mastectomies themselves, but it will instead be having a central line port installed in my chest for the chemo treatments.

That is IF the oncologist orders that specific chemo pathway.  Friday's PET scan will help determine that decision, if I understood correctly.

Anyway, if this happens, chances are, I will go through 2 rounds (takes 6 weeks, one every 3 weeks), then they will check the tumor on the right for adequate shrinkage.

If possible, surgery will take place then, in the "middle" of chemo.  Chemo will then resume and complete after surgery.

Friday's PET scan will show us a lot, too.  If the lymph nodes on the right side light up in the scan, that may indicate that all of them will be removed during surgery.

If only one or two light up, the pre-surgical chemo will help increase my chances of having only sentinel nodes removed, instead of all of them.

Summing up, the pre-surgical chemo will shrink the lesion in order to make it easier to remove in full, with clean margins, and it will possibly decrease my future chances of lymphedma from not having any lymph nodes left on the right side.

The left side has no lymphatic concerns, and is in situ, so we would be doing all of the above because of what's going on in the right breast.

The left breast just needs to be removed because of the type of cancer growing in it.  It's not sore, or lumpy, or swollen, it's just dangerous.

I had thought maybe I'd go to work this afternoon, but I did not anticipate that I'd have to do chemo, too, so it was a bit of a shock, and I need to stay home and deal with that.

Work can wait until tomorrow.

EDIT:  Oncologist's office called, and gave me a little more detail about pre-chemo.  I won't have to have the central line port before surgery.  That can be something they install DURING the mastectomies, so that I don't have to undergo an extra procedure.

That made me feel a bit better.  The oncology nurse also said that not everyone gets ragingly sick and loses all of their hair, so there's that bit of possible comfort, too.