1/4 Cup of Water

Dr. Hodges asked how last week went and if I had problems with excessive pain. No, I didn't, it went fine. Then he asked to see my range of motion, so I demonstrated that to him. Great, he said. Let's put in 90 cc of saline this week to speed up this process a little. So he put in one whole cow syringe of saline and then had his helper put in 30 more cc. He told us that 90 cc is 2 fluid ounces, which is 1/4 cup!

You could tell immediately that it made a difference in the size and shape of my right breast. It's looking more and more like a breast! It really didn't hurt any more than normal later in the day.

David & I went to Pappasitos to have lunch afterwards. I had to substitute a smaller ta-ta for the right bra cup now that it is fuller. And it seemed to stay inside the cup better!

The Angel Down the Alley

David & I were eating supper tonight when the doorbell rang-----very unusual at our house. He got up to see who it was. It was a lady. I saw her go back to her car and get a large vase of flowers and David opened the door for her to come in. Her name is Carla. She lives 3 houses down our alley. We've never spoken to her at all, but have waved at her lots of times as we drive by her house because she is always out in her yard working. She had been talking to Sandy, our next door neighbor, and Sandy told her about my breast cancer. Carla said she wanted to do something for me, so she got the flowers.

I told her that she made my day, which was putting it mildly, she more like blew me away! For someone I've never spoken to, to care that much was so touching. She hugged me and left. David and I were so touched that she did that. What an angel!

Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho It's Off to Work I Go!

After being off for 6 weeks, I was finally released and was more than ready to go back to work. Everyone at Unitrin has been so wonderful and I got lots of good hugs today. And everyone kept telling me how good I looked. I asked David if I looked that bad and he said, "yeah you did."

I spent today just putting my old cubicle back together after being in the quarantine cot room since January 8. Every password I use had to be reset. My phone had to be transferred. But it was good to be back contributing something. I was cautioned to only work half day, but I did just fine.

Divina gave me a potted kolanchoe plant for my desk with bright pink flowers. Several people gave me cards. It was good to be back!

Happy 56th Anniversary !

Mama and Daddy have been married 56 years today! They were married at Dickens in Granny & Papa's house. It's always been neat to me that Papa & Granny were married in July 1931 and Mama & Daddy were married in June 1951, then David & I were married in July 1971, 20 years difference between the 3 marriages. I feel blessed to have the heritage of long marriages in my family history!

Another Heart Test

Since I'm back taking the Herceptin, Dr. Brooks wanted me to have an ECG, echocardiogram. It will measure the strength of my heart's muscles to see if there has been any damage to it. David & I went to MCD for the 11:00 appointment. The lady who was doing the ECG was training a new girl, so she asked if it was alright if the trainee got to use me as a training experiment. Of course!!! The trainer was a great teacher, telling the trainee just how to do this. It was a little intense because she had to put some pressure on my left breast incisions to get the clear picture of the heart. We were in the room about 30 minutes, mostly so the trainee could get a feel for what she was looking for. Then the trainer took over and took the actual pictures to send to the doctor. It was a nice experience!

And the Drain Keeps Going

We visited both doctors yesterday, Dr. Hodges first and he was disappointed in the amount of fluid that drain #1 is still producing. He can't start inflating the tissue expander until that last drain is out. He's really proud of his handy work on the left breast reduction that he did. And it does look nice. There will hardly be any scars on it at all in 6 months probably. He told us to come back next Tuesday. How disappointing!

Next we saw Dr. Laidley, who was also very pleased with the progress, except that she wanted the drain out also. This drain is in the place where she removed the 9 lymph glands, so there is more healing going on there. She, too, wants to see me next Tuesday. She did tell me to start "using 'her' a little bit a few times a day (talking about my right arm) to start a little bit of exercise for the mastectomy side. She showed me how to reach up and touch the top of my head with my right arm and do that 3 times. I was thinking----what an exercise!!! Until I did it yesterday. Believe me, it was enough.

Between the visits we had time to kill, so we stopped at a Sonic and had strawberry milkshakes! That was a staple while I was going through chemo and I hadn't had one since my last chemo on 4-6-07.

Both doctors are pleased with my progress. Neither has released me for work, for driving, for exercising or much of anything else except rest. BOY, am I rested!

The Day It Really Hit Home 11-14-06

I went for my appointment yesterday 11-14-07 with Dr. Alison Laidley, a breast cancer surgeon and know a little more than we did. I am scheduled today for a PET scan where you drink glucose and then they do a scan on you to see if the cancer has spread any where else in the body. That will take 4 hours for the whole process. I’m scheduled for an MRI tomorrow at 11:30. The results of these 2 scans will give Dr. Laidley more information as to the strength and type of treatment.

Dr. Laidley did an ultrasound right in the exam room, so she could see the tumors herself and compare them to the films she got from Lake Pointe Medical Center. We had been scheduled in at her office as her last appointment of the day. She had me get dressed and then took us into her office to sit down. She explained the size and type of cancer that I have, she drew pictures to explain the options. What we weren't prepared for was when she said, "I think we can save your life, but it's going to be a long, tough year." That was a shocker! The first thing I thought of and it came out of my mouth was, "Well, just take it out now!" She put down her pen and looked straight at me and said, "Do you want to lose your breast?" I lowered my head and said "No" and David reached up and touched my shoulder and told her that we had already talked about this, but that I was just upset and I didn't mean that. She was hoping that we might be able to save the breast, but could give no assurance of that.

Dr. Laidley said she is going to be very aggressive with my treatment because of the size of the 2 tumors and how fast it has grown in such a short time. She will start me on chemotherapy next week to arrest the cancer growth and hopefully shrink the tumors and if there is cancer any where else, it will stop that also. She wouldn’t even talk about surgery of any kind at this point because of the size and rapid growth. I would have to take the chemo anyway, and doing it first gives a better chance of a successful surgery later. We will start with the chemo, then do radiation and there is also a new drug called Herceptin that has been successful in attacking the rapid cell growth on the type of cancer I have.

Thanks for all the prayers and hugs and encouragement. We’ve got a fight ahead of us----and fight, it’s gonna be.