5-31-11

I never realize just how busy life is until I sit down to write an entry here!

I called Dr. Gold's office because I started experiencing pain down the back of my left arm. I'm pretty sure it's nerves trying to knit themselves back together after the surgery, but I wanted to make sure that I treated it right over the holiday weekend. Turns out that Dr. Gold was already on her way to her vacation destination, but Barb from the office said I was on the right track and called in a prescription for Neurontin* for me.

She said that the main reason she was calling was that she had the results back from the surgery. Turns out that my tumor was approximately 4 cm in diameter, about twice as big as originally anticipated. The good news though is that my margins came back negative, which means that it hasn't moved beyond the breast area. The area they thought they saw on the right breast from the MRI turned out to be negative for cancer as well as a lymph node taken and tested from that side (WHEW!). They also took four lymph nodes from the left side and only one of those four showed the teeniest, tiniest speck of suspected cancer. This means that it's more likely that I will have to have treatment.

I just happened to come across a PBS program called "Second Opinion" that really seemed to pertain to my situation, so I recorded it on TiVo and watched it with Aaron yesterday. Wow, what a ton of really great information about Cancer post-op and post- treatment side effects in that show! I really *heart* PBS! This program in particular discussed axillary neuropathy** (numbness or shooting pain in the shoulder and arm) which I seem to be suffering because of the lymph node removal, but can also be caused by some chemotherapies. It also talked about the fuzziness and absent-mindedness that some patients experience called "chemo brain". Both are definitely worth discussing with my docs.

I have an appointment with Dr. Gold and Dr. Naill (radiation) tomorrow, to go over all this again and to begin discussing our options. My appointment with Dr. Eilender (chemo) will be in the next week or so. When I spoke with Dr. Eilender the last time, he mentioned the possibility of a bi-weekly, 8 treatment course if I had the right kind of cancer. Sounds right up my alley! Heck... I don't even think my hair will have the chance to fall out if it's that quick! Hehehehehe....

Anyway, I also had a couple of appointments with Dr. Pummill. The most recent was this morning where I had my last drain tube removed. Ah! Sweet relief!!!! Dr. P said that I'm healing up beautifully, that she wants to see me in a couple weeks, and that we might even get to start bumping out my expanders. Yee-HAW!!!!

I'm not letting this slow me down... At least not too much. :-D I've been out to dinner, a couple of movies, a couple of parties, & I got to hang out by the pool at a friend's Memorial Day get together. I decided today that I needed to get off my duff and start getting some exercise in, so I rode my recumbent bike for 15 minutes this afternoon (at a leisurely pace, of course) and did some gentle arm exercises just to get the blood flowing in the right direction. Watch out world.... Next up, I'm going for my black belt!

* Neurontin - http://www.rxlist.com/neurontin-drug-center.htm

** Axillary Neuropathy - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000689.htm