A busy 48 Hours!

Yesterday, Thursday the 21st was my big day of activities: it started with an MRI at 7:30, then a biopsy, then a CT scan, then a bone scan.  My first interaction of the day was getting an IV Catheter placed in my right arm.  Heidi's Helpful Cancer Hint of the Day: when receiving an IV Cath, do not get it in your dominant arm!!!  AND Hint # 2: if you have to wear it for several procedures, try to get them to place it in a vein NOT located where your arm bends!  I failed to heed either piece of this advice which meant I couldn't change my clothes.  As a result, I was walking around OHSU from one appointment to the other in long hospital gowns carrying a Kate Spade bag and a 3-ring binder in the crook of my left arm.  I'm surprised the Director of Public Safety was not called about the homeless woman wandering the halls.

The MRI to determine my qualifications for the study took a long time to do, but aside from my arms falling asleep (because I had to hold them above my head) it was painless.  The biopsy this time was a needle biopsy--and I have to say the doctor performing it was not nearly as liberal with the lidocaine as the doctor at Epic had been.  It HURT.  I would yelp and then she'd give me another shot of lido to numb what she had just done which was in stark contrast to feeling nothing during the vacuum-assisted biopsy I had had before.

I did have the nurses take a picture of one super-cool, long piece of my tumor for the blog, but Greg says it is WAY too GROSS to put on here.  Truly it's not that fascinating....and I didn't have anything to "scale" it so you can't really get a sense of how big it is, either.  I did text it to a few other friends, one who said she expected something black and ugly and twisty looking...it certainly doesn't live up to what you would expect.  It just looks like a shiny piece of tissue.  You'd never know it wanted to kill me!

BUT enough of that drama because the CT and Bone Scan results are in and that tumor is NOT GOING TO KILL ME!!!!  Yay!  The cancer has not spread anywhere else in my body.

In addition to the CT and Bone Scan results being awesome, the procedures were pretty easy too.  The CT scan took basically no time at all, although the contrasting agent is interesting.  It's a very hot rush through your body.  The only thing I didn't expect with the bone scan was that the contrasting agent is injected and then requires two hours to move through your body before the scan so I had to find something to do to kill some time.  I was happy to learn my friend Anne was nearby for a visit, though VERY sorry it was because her son had had a health problem.  (The good news is they're already safe and sound back home and celebrating one-year since his successful bone marrow transplant!!)  It was great to see Anne, and cry a little bit with her about a few things, and laugh with her a little bit about everything else.  I could get used to talking with Anne in person, although I hope it's not under the same circumstances again!  (Stay strong, S!)  Once the Bone Scan was over (it took a while too, but you just lay there and almost fall asleep) Greg gave me a ride home.

Today was the "Second Opinion" with Dr. Wheeler of Legacy Health Systems and I REALLY REALLY liked her.  She assures me this is, in part, because she was giving me a second opinion, and it's always easiest to hear the same stuff a second time.  Maybe that's true, but she was just a really sweet person to boot.

Dr. Wheeler is a surgeon as well, and says that as a surgeon she certainly prefers surgery first and chemo second but only because that makes her life easier.  She said she would actually do chemo first then surgery if she were me, and she took the time to explain her reasoning.  She had a few ideas about the timing of my sentinel node biopsy that she suggested I discuss with Naik and Chui at OHSU but she is definitely very enthusiastic about the care I could receive from them if I were to stay.  It would also be an option to treat with her and Chui at OHSU, but she politely suggested I wouldn't probably want to be running around town for follow-up appointments when I could do them all in one place.  Finally, she said I should probably talk to plastic surgeons too to see who I liked there because assuming I have reconstructive surgery, plastics will be a part of my after-care as well.

The bottom line: the second opinion is that I am in good hands if I stick with OHSU.  My opinion is the same, given both the doctors themselves as well as the nearby location to Greg's work.  I'm glad I met Dr. Wheeler, though.  She is a good person to know going forward and after chemo I would still have the option of making the change if I wanted to.

So that's it, party people: I can now say that clinically I have Stage II Breast Cancer.  I will survive it, but it's going to be a bit of a haul getting there.