New Doctors and a Surgery Date!

Both of my new doctors are at the Huntsman Cancer Center. This is a VERY pretty building! Very plush and nice inside. I met with the plastic surgeon on Tuesday and the general surgeon yesterday. First I'll talk about the surgeon, as he'll be doing the beginning part of surgery. This surgeon's approach will be a little different than than of Dr.Lloyd. He will do whichever surgery I decide to do, and I'm still leaning toward bi-lateral mastectomy. He will be removing  ALL lymph nodes on the side that had cancer, this is different than Dr. Lloyd. Remember she was going to take a few and check for cancer and only remove those that were positive? This doc believes that if he were to do that we could get a false negative because I've already had chemo. Not knowing which nodes were infected to begin with leaves us now knowing which ones may have cancer cells lurking. This news was very shocking to me. But now that I've had time to think about it I'm comfortable with the decision. The surgeon had not had time to review my imaging to see the before and after pictures of my tumor. He is going to have a radiologist review them and  get back to me on whether he thinks I'm a candidate for nipple sparing. If the cancer was to close to the edge then I will lose them. If it looks like I'm in the clear he will still do tissue testing during surgery from under the nipple to make sure there are no positive cancer cells, if there are then the nipples will have to go. Overall I thought this surgeon was nice, not as friendly as Dr. Lloyd, but I think he'll do a good job.
The plastic surgeon Tuesday. I thought he was a nice enough guy. I'm going to have to get used to have a resident Dr. and extra nurses in tow though. That's how the U and Huntsman work, they are training grounds. He'll place my expanders and do all my follow up visits, which means I'll be seeing him on a weekly basis for a while. One week after surgery I'll have my 1st set of drains removed (there are two drains on each side), and then at the 2 week appointment he'll remove the last two. Around 3 weeks after surgery will be when they start filling my tissue expanders, and this will continue on a weekly basis until we get to where I want to be. Depending on healing time and how long it takes to fill the expanders will determine when I can start radiation.

Surgery was scheduled for September 15th. They'll call me the Friday before and let me know my surgery time and instructions. I can expect a one night stay at the 4 Seasons resort called the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, which means I'll come home some time Tuesday. The only reason I would stay longer would be if there were complications or I am having pain management issues.

The surgery info has been sent over to my insurance to be preauthorized. There is a chance that they won't cover a bi-lateral mastectomy. Dealing with the Insurance is a big head ache!! I should know something before surgery I hope!!

I have moved my herceptin chemo to September 5th at 9am. I will not need a driver to this appointment.
I have also rescheduled my echo cardiogram to September 11th at 9:30am. Again, I can drive myself and won't need a driver.
It'll be nice to have those done before surgery for comfort sake :) Depending on how I'm feeling I may need to push my September 26th chemo back a week. For that chemo I most likely will need a driver, but I'll ask for help when it gets closer.

I am enjoying having my kids back in school! I plan on getting my house back in order and organized better while they are at school and before surgery. Cleaning makes me happy! And feeling good enough to clean is awesome!

Thank you for your continued prayers! My journey is far from over! This next part is very scary for me! Keep praying for me, your faith and prayers will help carry me through this!

I love you all!

New Doctors and a New Hospital

These past few weeks I've learned my insurance didn't cover my plastic surgeon. There are NO plastic surgeon's at St. Marks that take my insurance! After talking with an upper management at my Insurance they thought they could work out a one time contract with the plastic surgeon that I wanted, however, I received word yesterday that they did NOT want to pursue the one time contract as there are other doctors at the University hospital that I could choose from. I kind of thought this may happen so I've spent time this week looking into the surgeons and plastic surgeons at the U. I had one doc recommended to me that does plastic surgery. I talked to ladies in my support group and several of them had him as their doc and they loved him. The good new is, he takes my insurance! Of the 3 surgeons he works with only 1 of them takes my insurance. I've made appointments with both docs for this next week. If all goes like I'd like, I should have a surgery date set by the end of the week, but if I had to guess, I'd say surgery most likely will happen the week of September 15th.
So with the new doctors comes a change of hospital. I'm not too excited to go to the U, but hopefully as the surgery date gets closer I can have a change of heart and attitude.

Herceptin Treatment #1

Quick update of what's happened since my last email!
A huge thank you to my family for putting together the Caramels for Christy night! I loved being able to visit with each one of you that came. And I especially loved all the hugs! For those of you who were there during the sudden down pour of rain, wasn't that awesome?! I have a pretty amazing family, on both sides, and I'm so thankful for all that they do to support me and help me out!
My surgery date is still tentative. The reason? The short answer is that I'm working with my insurance to find a surgeon and plastic surgeon that BOTH take my insurance and work at the same hospital. I am really hoping to have this resolved by the middle of this week. I may have to switch hospitals for surgery, but I'm still holding out hope that we can find a resolution that allows me to stay at St. Marks.
My MRI was on the 8th of August. It was just as nerve racking as I thought it would be. And to say I'm glad it's over and done is an under statement! My veins are pretty hammered from chemo so they IV didn't go too well. While the contrast was being injected my vein burst, which made for a fun bruise. While the MRI wasn't pleasant the results from it are INCREDIBLE! The lime size cancer tumor is completely gone! Which means there was a complete response to the chemo!! I got to see the results with my own eyes, and it was pretty cool! They showed me the MRI imaging from March and the one from the most recent so that I could see the difference. Just because the tumor is gone doesn't mean there aren't some single cancer cells left behind, so there will still be a surgery and radiation.
Last week I met with my radiation oncologist. It was a very educational meeting that explained why radiation after surgery is so helpful. Once surgery is over and I get the green light from the plastic surgeon I'll meet with the radiation oncologist again to get mapped out with a few very small tattoo's for treatment. Radiation could begin as soon as a month after surgery, but it ultimately depends on my healing from surgery. Back in March I was told I would have 30 treatments of radiation (5 days a week for 6 weeks), but it looks like it may only be 25 treatments (5 days a week for 5 weeks). Guess we'll wait and see how it all works out.
My herceptin treatment was last Friday. My son Bradley was my chemo buddy. He loves going to my treatments with me. Maybe he should be a medical oncologist when he grows up...
My port access went very smooth and wasn't uncomfortable at all! Wahoo! That always makes me happy!
I met with a Doctor that I had never seen before. He's a retired doc that comes in occasionally to help out. My wait to see him was almost a 30 minute wait. My longest wait to see a Dr. We talked about my finger nails, which are showing signs of a reaction from taxotere. A couple of my nail beds are bruised and have fallen off. Not very pretty.
We scheduled my next treatment and my next echo cardiogram.
Here are the results from my visit:
My weight was 142
White blood count: 3, normal is between 4.2-10.5
Red blood count: 2.98, normal is between 4.04-5.48
Hematocrit- 30.9%, normal is between 38-48
Platelet count- 101, normal is between 140-450

The herceptin treatment is much quicker than the original chemo appointments! And there are no nasty side effects! This past weekend I felt great!

My next treatment will be September 16th at 8:50am. I will need a driver to this appointment because I will not be able to drive after surgery for about a month. A driver has already been found for this chemo.
My next echo cardiogram is on September 23rd at 10am (Aundrea's birthday!!) I have already lined up a driver for this appointment as well. I will have an echo cardiogram every 3 months, so the next one would be the end of December.

Thank you for continuing to pray for me! My journey is not complete! I'm excited that the hard chemo's are done! That's a big relief! I know there are still hard days to come, but with all the love and support I continue to receive I know I'll get through it! Thank you for loving me and strengthening me! I love you all!