The Path Ahead

So the next big day in our adventure was hearing what the pathology report had to say. I was actually looking forward to what the report might NOT say. I know I am backwards but trust me.. this side of the fence is just as crowded.

Today the waiting room was not a ghost town, but I was put in a room quickly and did the change into the Johnny shirt <ties facing forward>. A new Dr came in....and explained that sometimes he and Dr. T help each other out and that way they get to learn each others areas as well. I guess he dealt more with the bottom half of woman than the top half.

He did an examination on me to see how I was healing and then flipped open the report. I felt like I was in a drama show and had to keep waiting past the commercial break to see the next segment. He reviewed the results:

Tumor size: 7.5 cm ...holy shit!
Margin around tumor: they want 5 mm as a clear zone and I had 8...ok lets keep the good news going
Lymph nodes: in 1 of 9 ...yeahhh only thing better would have been 0
Grade: 3 ..well kind of expected that one considering the size
CAT scan: all clear..meaning nothing else anywhere in my body
Wall Motion study: strong heart


That was the basic story of it. There were other parts such as my tumor was negative for estrogen cells which means drugs like Tamoxofin won't work, but really the news was great.  It meant that from a cellular level technically I was cancer free.BUT he explained this did not get me out of chemo...damn!

He went out of the room and discussed my report with Dr T and in comes Dr T who did a quick check and was thoroughly disappointed that he had to take all the lymph nodes when only one was positive... I was ok with this scenario. If they had a chance of being infected...take them, I don't want them. Then he basically signed my release form and said...see you in a year! Wow....but then again this is not a department you want to be a repeat visitor in.

I did ask if he had any idea what my chemo rounds would be. He didn't want to guess at all as he said...because of the size of your tumor you will have chemo probably followed by radiation but as for anything else...I have not idea. Well that makes two of us.

At this moment the reality of my original appointment hits me. If I hadn't pushed for an earlier mammogram I cannot image the size my tumor would have been. Dr T was bang on when he said "if you had waited until October there would be nothing I could do for you". He was right as the tumor has grown .5 cm just in the week and a half from the core biopsy to my surgery. Again I say BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE. My story could be very different had I not been. I shudder at this thought.

As we wave good buy to Dr T and Dr. ? ..enter Nurse L. Who asks how I am feeling...this becomes a very common question asked by everyone..and has nothing to do with my physical health but rather my emotional stability.

I was great. As far as things that could have been in that report I had come out well. She did admit that she was very surprised I didn't have to come back in after I got the drains out. She took them out only because of my persistence but she did say to the other nurse "I really expect her to be back for drainage". Oh no...you see, once you let me get out the door....I am not so good at coming back....until you make me....I guess that means I would be a bad psych patient.