Tuesday, July 10, 2012

DoctorVisits Tuesday

I saw my oncologist first this morning and we went over all of the test results:

  • bone scan:  arthritis--degenerative joints in both knees, ankles, shoulders; collarbone; spine
  • CT-Scan:  everything looked good excepts for two tiny spots on my liver so will schedule an MRI to determine what those spots are that are too small to biopsy; MRI will be next week sometime.
  • surgical pathology report:  lots of pre-cancerous stuff in left breast.  Three tumors in my right.  Same cancer I had before.  I am a "conundrum"--this should not have happened with everything I did for treatment the last time.
  • next steps:  MRI; he'll call all his head-of-oncology specialists throughout the country for suggestions.  There is no data-driven approach to my situation.  Most likely I'm looking at a minimum of 4 chemotherapy treatments with different drugs than I took before and some other long-term drug therapy.  Will know more when I meet him again on the 25th.
Then I saw my breast surgeon and the nurse:
  • removed half of the staples that close my incision; put a few steri-strips on a couple of places
  • removed the drains, even though they hadn't reached the level she wanted--too much redness around the drain sites
  • will need to monitor the drain sites as I will probably fill up with fluid that will need to be aspirated
  • will definitely have the rest of the staples removed before the MRI
  • imagine I will see them again later this week or the first of next week
  • will also reconnect with the lymphedema center once more of the swelling has gone down to reassess my arms and work on exercises to stretch out under my arms in particular
After my appointments, Andrew and Jamie and I went out to Fort Williams Park and Portland Head Light.  I made some phone calls and worked in my journal at a picnic table in the shade while they walked the shoreline and took pictures.  Then we went out to Two Lights and had lunch at the Lobster Shack.  What a perfect day there!  Finished off our time together with ice cream at Red's before going to the airport.  They flew out at 5:30 to LA with a change and brief stop in Cleveland.  They expect to be in LA at 11PM their time, 2 AM ours.  And Andrew has to work tomorrow but not until after 10 so he'll get some sleep. It was great to have a much time with them as I did.














1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Terrific pictures. Connie