Monday, February 27, 2012

Not much has happened yet a lot has happened.  That makes perfect sense!  So we made the executive decision to doctor locally and the plastic surgery and oncology visits are set up. As luck would have it my sister knows the oncology nurse practitioner.  She is a super sweetheart and actually spoke with me on the phone to offer education and support. She made sure to set up my appointment before our trip for Spring Break so that we can do the gene testing. This will be the big deciding factor on if the right breast stays or goes. She also asked when I was thinking of having surgery, right after our vacation or waiting until after Kinsey graduates in June. I explained that this was not evident last year, it is this large in one year, and if I wait until mid June it will have had 5 full months to grow from the time it was seen on mammogram in January.   Therefore I want to schedule surgery at the end of March! She fully agreed and expressed her concerns that it may be spreading. This just makes sense anyway as we need gene testing results and the plastics consult first and all that takes time but we don't want to waste time.

The nurse from Dr. number one also called.  She needed to pass along my MRI results and the second opinion on the biopsies. She told me they too confirmed that all 7 biopsies are DCIS.  She also gave me the measurements of the area from my MRI. She stressed that since it is was larger than originally thought there is a chance that the cancer is now invasive. Hmmm two opinions, outside of the concerns my sister and I have, that this non-invasive cancer MIGHT be spreading.

It's hard to not let all of this consume your life, yet at this point it kind of does as so many things need planned and decided. A friend passed along some books to me. Another nurse shared a great website for info as did my sister. I spent several hours just educating and researching. Finally I needed a break so grabbed some groceries and made dinner. After dinner I decided it was time to explain more to my family-just exactly where we are in this whole process. It's difficult because I don't want the kids to have too much information yet they are young adults and I don't want it all to hit them at once. Hopefully by giving them small increments they will better deal with it.

After dinner I decided to share what appointments are set up and why. I also chose to explain to them that there are some concerns that this might be spreading. I really stressed MIGHT and that we do not know and will not know until after the surgery. I gave them time to ask questions and told them at this point we really need to be focusing our prayers that the cancer would stay contained. They seemed to understand. Later it was just quiet time for Brad and I to absorb everything.