Good, better, best

I have three pieces of news to share. For once they’re all pretty positive. I hate to put any sort of caveat on good news, but the truth of the matter is this is that most of my updates are just data points along the way rather than a definitive “all clear”.

Nevertheless, the first piece of news is that I went in for a follow-up mammogram today (Wednesday 11/16/2011). It took a long time, even though I had checked in bright and early for an 8:45 appointment they didn’t get to me until a after 9:00. Then I had the joy of going back to the staging room to wait for the radiologist dr. to read the images. They came back for me and told me they wanted to do an ultrasound too. I tried very hard to get a grip on my emotions as I hopped up on the table and lay waiting for the radiologist to come in. Those two or three minutes when you’re just sitting by yourself are terrible torture. Fortunately it was really only a few minutes before the dr. showed up. I told him up front that I wanted full disclosure about what he was seeing during the exam so that I would have as much information as I could get out of the visit. He spent about 5 minutes checking things from a bunch of different angles and ultimately concluded that he couldn’t see anything worth being worried about. Being overly cautious he suggested a follow-up in 6 months just to double-check things, but reassured me that there’s nothing concerning.

The second piece of news is that last Friday (11/11/11) I had my 1 year post-cancer-treatment follow up. This included a full CAT scan. That came back completely fine. Yup it’s exciting to be considered “cancer free” and “in remission” for a full year. That’s great news since 60% of the cases recur within one year. That still means we have a ways to go – as my doctor says my odds didn’t change, we just have more data. But I will take these small victories any way I can get them – and what a fantastic date to commemorate the occasion.

Which brings me to my last piece of news. It was recommended to me that I keep my power port in until I passed my 1-year mark. I also decided to wait just a few more days to get past the mammogram. Walking out of the screening this morning my first call was to my oncologist’s office to have them schedule the port removal. It has been such a ugly, annoying, horrific, and painful thing and a terribly depressing reminder of the potential risk of recurrence. There are so many things I can’t do without it getting in the way. When the kids try to climb over me I often get an elbow jabbed in it, or a head-butt when I bend over to help them put on pants because they’re jumping around. I can’t wear my laptop-bag cross body on the left side without the strap rubbing and hitting it. Heck, I can’t even wear a seatbelt comfortably. So I am overjoyed that I get the darn thing out. That is scheduled for the next available appointment, which is Wednesday 11/23 at 9 AM. I am so so so excited! And I’m already plotting a tattoo to go around the incision site when this whole thing is behind me.

oh no - really?

Last week I decided to get my baseline mammogram. I had been putting it off for a while in some vague assumption that I couldn't possibly be at risk for two different cancers. Then I got a call today. I knew it was not going to be good news because they're not supposed to call. They're supposed to send you a letter if everything is normal, dammit. I'm not saying they found anything "bad" just inconclusive. So I am going back "at the next earliest appointment" which is a week from tomorrow... yeah 8 more days before they can do any follow up.  I am not really worried because the woman on the phone with her delightful voice assured me that 50% of people who come in for a baseline are asked to come in for some reason. However I kind of go into shock when they say anything needs follow up. I barely took in enough information to ascertain that I could call around to a couple of the locations and figure out which one had the earliest appointment. 

Exploring my options and getting an appointment was the first and only order of business on my mind for the next 1/2 hour. No time to worry about pesky details like what the implications would be if there were an actual problem.

Then I had to turn to my trusty friend: The Internet. I was sure that the Internet would set my fears at ease -- can you hear the sarcasm coming through on that one? Turns out I couldn't find ANYTHING to substantiate that 50% of the baseline mammograms require some follow up and there is certainly nothing that I found to tell me how many of those turned out to be "nothing" after all. I will see what I can do to keep it together for as long as I can. But I expect it will be at least three weeks before I get any actual results.  Not to worry - you'll get an update here one way or another.