“I GOT TO SHOWER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A MONTH! LAAAAA.”
“Got to say LOVED the word ‘dissected’ as it referred to MY body.”
“Cole is really glad that mommy can sleep with him again. Mommy is too.”
Hi Everyone,
I have been moving rather slowly. I don't have as much energy as my mind keeps trying to tell me I do. I have gone back to work this week but have only managed to work 1/2 days. I am still hopeful that tomorrow I can do a full day. We will see. My iron is low so that doesn't help things much. I am certainly improving despite the low energy. I can lift my left arm straight over my head and almost have full range of motion back in that arm. I only started the exercises on my right arm today and don't expect it will take any longer in my right arm than it did in my left. My chest, sides and back remain tender but there is noticeable improvement there as well.
I am VERY HAPPY to tell you I got my drain out yesterday afternoon. It had been in a month. Yes, a month. I GOT TO SHOWER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A MONTH! LAAAAA. I really did sing LAAA when I got into that down pour of warm luxurious water. You just can't know what that meant to me. Tomorrow I can take a bath. I'm live’n now.
I don't have much news in the way of treatment. We have met with the Oncologist, Matt Lonergan, but can't do any further testing without insurance approval. The tests, BRAC 1 & 2, ONCO DX are incredibly expensive and that apparently takes longer to get approval for. Matt did run a simplified version of the ONCO DX test that shows the % of benefit to chemo and hormone therapy. Hormone therapy shows a much greater % of benefit than chemo. Matt gave us a lot of information and several ways to think about all of it. He said hormone therapy is necessary and chemo is a personal choice. If the % of benefit from chemo were 5% or more he would see it as necessary. From his calculations chemo is 3%. He pointed out that 1% of people that do chemo die from it and that needs to be considered. He also pointed out that if I had a breast cancer recurrence it wouldn't kill me. It would be a recurrence that again would be very treatable. If we did decide to do chemo I wouldn't feel 'well' for a year. So he wasn't pushing chemo. When we went to the surgeon Jeff asked her if it were her, given what she knows, would she have chemo? She said no with having "dissected the breasts from here to here to around your back" (she pointed to her collar bone to under where the breasts used to be) there is no breast tissue left. She also felt the 'bang for your buck' didn't outweigh the risk or side effects. Got to say LOVED the word dissected as it referred to MY body. GROSS! Bottom line we don't/won't know what is next until the testing is all done. However, if everything remained the same as it is today we would not do chemo. More wait and see. We see the Geneticist on March 9th, Matt on the 10th and Marion Johnson (surgeon) on the 12th.
Jeff and I are going to Vegas tomorrow for a long weekend. Jeff planned this over a year ago as a surprise. Because it has been planned for so long we are going to go. Jeff may go to the races on Sunday but I will stay at the hotel and read or have a message. We are looking forward to being away just the two of us after all of this. Aunt G is watching Cole for us. Thanks G. You are my hero! Cole is really glad that mommy can sleep with him again. Mommy is too.
Hoping this find all of you happy and healthy. Again thank you for all of your love and prayers. We feel blessed beyond measure.
Mary
“Got to say LOVED the word ‘dissected’ as it referred to MY body.”
“Cole is really glad that mommy can sleep with him again. Mommy is too.”
Hi Everyone,
I have been moving rather slowly. I don't have as much energy as my mind keeps trying to tell me I do. I have gone back to work this week but have only managed to work 1/2 days. I am still hopeful that tomorrow I can do a full day. We will see. My iron is low so that doesn't help things much. I am certainly improving despite the low energy. I can lift my left arm straight over my head and almost have full range of motion back in that arm. I only started the exercises on my right arm today and don't expect it will take any longer in my right arm than it did in my left. My chest, sides and back remain tender but there is noticeable improvement there as well.
I am VERY HAPPY to tell you I got my drain out yesterday afternoon. It had been in a month. Yes, a month. I GOT TO SHOWER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A MONTH! LAAAAA. I really did sing LAAA when I got into that down pour of warm luxurious water. You just can't know what that meant to me. Tomorrow I can take a bath. I'm live’n now.
I don't have much news in the way of treatment. We have met with the Oncologist, Matt Lonergan, but can't do any further testing without insurance approval. The tests, BRAC 1 & 2, ONCO DX are incredibly expensive and that apparently takes longer to get approval for. Matt did run a simplified version of the ONCO DX test that shows the % of benefit to chemo and hormone therapy. Hormone therapy shows a much greater % of benefit than chemo. Matt gave us a lot of information and several ways to think about all of it. He said hormone therapy is necessary and chemo is a personal choice. If the % of benefit from chemo were 5% or more he would see it as necessary. From his calculations chemo is 3%. He pointed out that 1% of people that do chemo die from it and that needs to be considered. He also pointed out that if I had a breast cancer recurrence it wouldn't kill me. It would be a recurrence that again would be very treatable. If we did decide to do chemo I wouldn't feel 'well' for a year. So he wasn't pushing chemo. When we went to the surgeon Jeff asked her if it were her, given what she knows, would she have chemo? She said no with having "dissected the breasts from here to here to around your back" (she pointed to her collar bone to under where the breasts used to be) there is no breast tissue left. She also felt the 'bang for your buck' didn't outweigh the risk or side effects. Got to say LOVED the word dissected as it referred to MY body. GROSS! Bottom line we don't/won't know what is next until the testing is all done. However, if everything remained the same as it is today we would not do chemo. More wait and see. We see the Geneticist on March 9th, Matt on the 10th and Marion Johnson (surgeon) on the 12th.
Jeff and I are going to Vegas tomorrow for a long weekend. Jeff planned this over a year ago as a surprise. Because it has been planned for so long we are going to go. Jeff may go to the races on Sunday but I will stay at the hotel and read or have a message. We are looking forward to being away just the two of us after all of this. Aunt G is watching Cole for us. Thanks G. You are my hero! Cole is really glad that mommy can sleep with him again. Mommy is too.
Hoping this find all of you happy and healthy. Again thank you for all of your love and prayers. We feel blessed beyond measure.
Mary
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