Overdue Post!

Wow! I can't believe that it is already January 27th! On January 16th I had a second surgery to clean up the margin in one area of my breast. That surgery was successful. Step 1 of treatment is finally done!

I got very sick from the sedation used during the surgery. It was different drugs than used during the general anesthesia I had for the first surgery. I had an appointment on the 17th with Dr. Gitau, my oncologist, that I wasn't going to miss. The appointment consisted of me puking and getting an IV! But I did get some more valuable information, if not all the information that I was expecting that day.

The pathology further classified my breast cancer as mucinous carcinoma. It is a rare form of breast cancer that is typically only found in older women that are post-menopausal.  It also tends to be a less aggressive form that responds well to treatment and is less likely to spread to lymph nodes than other invasive breast cancer. Mucinous means that the cancer cells are surrounded by mucin - if you're thinking mucus, you are right!

I'm still waiting to find out whether I will have chemotherapy. The Oncotype DX test needed was not ordered until I saw Dr. Gitau on 1/17. The results are supposed to be back when I see him again on February 1st. As I talked about in my post in November, the test determines chance of recurrence for early stage, estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. Since it was also determine in surgery that I had DCIS, the test also determines the likelihood of recurrence of DCIS or new invasive cancer. It additionally, helps determine the likelihood of benefitting from radiation and chemotherapy.

Physically, I was doing ok until Wednesday when I tore some internal sutures in my breast. It was, and still is, very painful. My surgeon checked me out and sent me to the ER to make sure it wasn't anything else; it all came up clear. Dr. Bouton says I've got some pissed off, injured tissue in there that now needs to heal.  I've been set back to square one for healing.

I felt good enough to go to the Sundog 2013 kickoff meeting on Friday and even went to the holiday party for a little while. It was great to see so many of my great co-workers in person. The hugs were awesome! I was pretty tired on Saturday but made it out to one of Sarah's basketball tournament games.

Next steps: I check in with Dr. Bouton again Tuesday morning to make sure that the injury is getting better. Then Friday afternoon I will hopefully have my next step set. More to come...