Well after a down in the dumps day; and a moment of sadness late last night... I'm ready to start a new day today. Received a call from Dr. G. this morning ( the surgeon) he's back from vacation and was filling out my "orders" -- so we went over the details of the surgery.
No eating/ drinking after midnight the night before.
They'll inject me with "radiological medicine" to assist them in locating the sentinel lymph nodes, and insert a fine needle into my breast to help them locate my tumor during surgery.
Surgery will take place under general anesthesia and last 1-2 hours. I'll be in the recovery room about an hour after that.
They will seal me up with internal stitches, dermabond (glue) and a butterfly bandage.
It's about 2 days for the results of the lymph nodes and about 2 weeks for the oncotype test.
In the latest version of the NCCN Guidelines, the option of using a gene-based assay of tumor tissue (Oncotype DX®, Genomic Health) to help guide chemotherapy treatment decisions is now included within the systemic adjuvant treatment decision pathway for patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative tumors that are 0.6 to 1.0 cm and moderately/poorly differentiated or with unfavorable features, or > 1 cm. -from n.c.c.n. website
The Oncotype DX test determines how specific genes are expressed (that is, their level of activity) within a tumor sample. The measurement of these genes is calculated to yield an individualized result called a breast cancer Recurrence Score®. The Recurrence Score result correlates with the likelihood that a patient's breast cancer will return (distant recurrence) and also indicates whether he or she is likely to benefit from chemotherapy for breast cancer. - from "my breast cancer treatment . Org"
There are mild limitations to activity levels; based mainly on comfort and common sense (no water skiing for six weeks...lol). Fully healed in six weeks.
I'll see him again in 3-4 weeks; unless I have something crop up serious before then. He was happy to hear we were staying in st. Louis until Sunday as most concerns would crop up in the first 24 hours.
I did put a call into LMH; Dr. Soule's office to check on the genetic test. Waiting for a call back. While I'm pretty confident it won't sway me from my decision-- you never know.
I'm getting a bit more comfortable with the thought of chemo. Less concerned about "feeling badly" for an extended period of time. More concerned about poisoning my body and the lack of confidence in the science being the best thing overall for my health. It is very difficult to take on decisions that potentially will effect your life span; quality of life; future medical procedures etc.
For an indecisive libra -- it's a daunting task which exhausts me in a way I can't describe. Having confidence in my own desires and making sure while I know this effects others, that I truly will live with the consequences of these decisions -- makes me realize that this is indeed a huge life lesson for me to have to learn. That the universe felt I had to learn it in this way is a bit unfortunate but perhaps indicative of how important it is and how late I was to learn it.
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