{high points, big points..just points}

Well, it’s been over a month since I posted last, but it seems like far more than a month’s worth of “stuff” has been crammed into the last month.  Since I am way behind on updating on my Cancer 2.0 journey I will try to hit the high points, well lets say the big points because a “high point” is a bit deceiving.  ‘High point” makes me think of something fun and positive.  “Hey, John! What was the high point of your trip to Europe?” “Buying a new car was the high point of my month!” [Which actually happened in my world last month :)]  “The high point of my day was having lunch with my girlfriends.” Those are high points, there haven’t been many Cancer 2.0 high points.  So let’s sit down and catch up, shall we?

Last we spoke we were waiting...waiting on surgery, pathology results, oncology appointments...just waiting. All the waiting for these events has ended.  Surgery on October 13, I had a lumpectomy.  There was a high point on this date, this was the easiest surgery I have ever had.  I was more concerned about coming out of surgery than I was about the actual surgery.  Every surgery I have had it takes me ages to fully wake up and I am nauseous for hours and always end up throwing up.  Every time I have surgery the anesthesiologist changes my “cocktail” to try to make it easier on me and they never quite get it right.  Until this man Dr. Denny came into my life, he is my new favorite man in my surgical life.  He eliminated gasses from my cocktail and hit the nail on the head!  After surgery, I heard them say my name and I started to wake right up, I was with it enough to take long drags through my oxygen mask and I didn’t have one moment of nausea.  The heavens opened up and the sun shone down into my room.  Hallelujah! Easiest surgery ever! Granted the surgery was only about an hour so that made a difference I’m sure, but regardless I was thankful for whatever Dr. Denny mixed up for me.  I also didn’t use a single Rx painkiller, Advil a total of three times did the trick. So freaking easy! So, I had a fantastic surgery experience as far as surgeries go and I have a fantastic new scar to show for it. 

Onto my appointment for the  pathology results...clean margins! The best news we could hear from the lumpectomy.  Okay, that is a high point, too. My doctor was concerned about being able to get enough margins to test.  The issue was that since I have had a mastectomy and have no breast tissue the only margins that were available were skin and muscle.  Originally it looked as if the the tumor was sandwiched between the skin and muscle, but it had actually grown into the muscle a bit.  My doctor ended up having to take a small chunk of muscle to get tissue around to test, but on the skin side really couldn’t get much, but with what she was able to take tested clear which means there were no cancer cells in the surrounding tissue. The tumor was dumbbell shaped {duh. ;-)} and measured 1cm x 4mm at it largest point. A centimeter long seems significant to me, but at least it wasn't a centimeter round. That would not have been a good thing, not that the tumor I had was a good thing, but I think you get what I'm say.  At this appointment we were also given recommended options for the unknown nodule on my aorta.  My doctor said if it were her she would wait a couple months, have another PET scan, and see if there were any changes to the nodule.  The other option...there is a doctor here that said he could get to it with robotic surgery and it would be minimally invasive.  Well, what we found out is that minimally invasive meant collapsing a lung to get to my aorta.  It could weaken my lung and it could weaken my aorta.  We chose Door A, we will wait and have another scan at the end of December.  The risks of the surgery weren’t worth it. If my next scan shows a change then we will have to revisit the surgery option. We both feel comfortable with this course of action.  About a dozen doctors and radiologists looked at my scan and put a lot of thought and consideration into them.  All of them felt that it was benign and waiting to do a scan in a couple months was a safe option. 

That's a short and sweet catch up of a couple things. I think I am just going to leave this post at short and sweet because my next catch up post in my series of Cancer 2.0 points is a blog post all of its own...my treatment plan.  Stay tuned for the post that is everything that is testing my inner cancer ninja these days.