I now have a Port! Woo-hoo! Yay! At least 5 different people on the day of the installation said "Third time's the charm!" I hafta go on faith for the rest of it. I went through the previously described drill - see entry on Port parts 1 & 2. Everything was amazingly similar. Many of the same people, places and things happened to and around me. I came out on the other end this time and they tell me I have a port. I hafta go on faith. Sore arm- check. Little brochure - check (I actually let her give it to me this time - I wasn't taking the dad-gummed thing without making it through the whole procedure.) Little bump under the dressing - check. ID card for the wallet - check. Anyway, all this was yesterday and I spent the rest of the day sleeping off the joy juice and stuff.
Today, I had an appointment with Dr. Arrastia (the OBGYN oncologist) who was sooo nice that I almost didn't get upset when she told me that I would be having my ovaries removed and should consider giving her my uterus too. All of the doctors (Hatch, Arrastia, Silva) are of the same mind that:
- My ovaries, being polycystic, haven't done much for me lately.
- Won't do much for me later. Having ovaries hanging around could make it harder to treat my cancer. There are medicines that would require me to be post -menopausal to work best.
- Arrastia said they were pretty funny looking too. She did say I have a "nice small uterus", which I took as a compliment - hey take 'em where you can get em!
She then did a pelvic exam, and prescribed the BRCA1, BRCA2 gene test for me. Our family tree is so small that the genetic test might be valuable in deciding what to do with my"nice small uterus." She changed the dressing on my port, which had bled. It is better and has started healing already. I made Chris take a picture with his cell phone so I could see... I was surprised that there are no visible stitches! I'll see if Chris thinks the picture is too gross to post. She is concerned about my blood pressure, which has been a little erratic. I think it's from the coughing (yes, I still have a heinous cough) and the stress, but she wants to be sure that when it comes time to do surgery that things are under control. She thinks it can all (the mastectomy, the ovaries and the uterus) be done at one time if I'm healthy enough.
Next it was on to Family Medicine. My Dr. Elsaid is on vacation, but I saw Dr. Irwin, who has worked with Chris and we addressed the issue of the neverending cough. It really started acting up in her office too! So we are covering the bases: in case it is Pertussis (whooping cough) she is putting me on some serious antibiotics that will/would take care of that or a sinusitis oriented thing. I got some inhaled steroids and a cough syrup. I'm sure Chris and mom will sleep easier now! One would think with all the antibiotics I've had in the last month I'd be CLEAN.
Tomorrow is Dr. Markowitz (oncologist)! Turns out that on Monday, Chris missed the tumor board, they had discussed me last week. He did go to Pathology and review with them a few things so he'd have a better picture of what is going on. I had been hoping that at this Markowitz meeting we would, now that all the tests are in, put together a plan for treatment and then begin chemo the following day. I am worried/thinking that the cough and the just installed/not yet healed port are going to put chemo off at least another week. I should, at least have some sort of a timeline, though. I have no idea yet how this maps out - a year? 9 months? 6 months? When can I have the surgery? How long is the chemo? How long is the radiation? My original idea of "My summer will suck, but then it will be over" seems to be very idealistic. These are all questions to be answered dum, da, dum... Tomorrow.
Every day it gets a little real-er.
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