Author: hmritz

Incisions look good and I have a normal amount of swelling. Low activity for 2 weeks from surgery, short walks and normal daily activity use of my arm without raising too high or lifting too much. If it hurts, stop…is the rule I should live by. After 2 weeks, I’ll start stretching to loosen up the muscles on my left side and the goal is back to pre-surgery motion in 6 weeks.

Sadly, the pathology report isn’t in from tests…the world as it stands now means their regular testing office is closed and they had to send everything back to Tennessee…so still waiting on results. Earliest would be tomorrow, latest probably Friday but she thinks it’ll likely be Thursday. So, I’ll hear when they come in.

She is setting up the referrals to the medical oncologist and the radiologist this week and the team will meet to review my results early next week.

The medical oncologist will be the one to walk us through whether chemo will help enough to go through it. Radiation is a definite due to my type of cancer but it will be a question of whether there is chemo before or not. The test results from the surgery will help dictate this as well. So, waiting…waiting…waiting…

I hate waiting

For now, everything is as it should be. No stitches to remove, they’ll dissolve on their own and the tape holding them will fall off on it’s own too. All good on this end and recuperation is going smoothly.

I’ll post an update once we get the results later this week. I’m not sure timing of talking to the doctors after they meet to review next week. Seems likely mid to late next week at the earliest to talk through next steps.

Its rainy here and we’re talking about clam chowder for lunch…yum. Maybe I’ll get a breadbowl…

Compression bandage is off! I can now shower…if I wanted to shower more than watch Better off Ted episodes. Oh the choices.

I’ve been feeling good. Mostly some pinching which I think was/is from one of the bandages or could be the incision. We’ll see this afternoon. I’ve just been taking Tylenol, not the prescription pills as there really hasn’t been any real pain. I’ve been trying to remember the ice packs throughout the day. I do have to be aware to not use my left arm to lift things or to lift my arm. I also have to make sure I keep a pillow handy to keep the dogs off my left side when they want to snuggle.

I think it might be time to shower! Go me…getting off the couch!

I’ve been home for awhile now and just starting to feel the pinch. It’s still less bothersome then either the biopsy or the Tuesday appointment to add the seed, so Yay! I’m starting to ice and took some Tylenol to stay ahead of it.

Feeling fine otherwise though and have been resting on the couch and crocheting.

Happy Friday All!

B.J. posting a update on Heather after surgery. All is well and she is in recovery.

Today’s the day and it started as most do…at 3:30am with a screaming cat in the hall. Now she’s asleep and I’m wide awake…I sometime wonder if this is what happens when kids crawl into their parents’ bed in the middle of the night.

People seem to be surprised at how calmly I’ve been dealing with all this. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I went through years of ongoing back pain after my herniated disc that have given me some sort of reference point for dealing with a long term health issue or levels of pain. For example we were talking to the surgeon about the MRI or taking it easy after the surgery…something along those lines and I looked at BJ and said “Well, if it doesn’t involve you moving me around while I scream in you ear…we’re making progress.” The surgeon reassured us that it’s not that much pain…so progress! Or maybe it was the years that I saw Tracy dealing with rheumatoid arthritis, there are good days and less good days over the course of time. You just deal with what’s in front of you and take the next step. And really that’s just life.

Won’t this be the biggest build up if we can get everything out with this surgery and there’s no indication of spread? I’ll probably have spent more time trying to figure out this blog and set up than in medical appointments. There will be much cheering in Whoville that day!

I am expecting ongoing medication regardless, and I certainly have a good incentive to remember to take it every day (and a fabulous husband to remind me!) Even if I do need to go through chemo and/or radiation, there are, literally, millions of people with cancer of all types, who have gone through it, lost their hair, got burned or sick from the medicine, and come out the other side just fine. Most treatments are temporary states of being and all with the end goal of making you better and living a healthier life. I mean, I’ll likely get a nutritionist who wants me to substitute my corn dogs and tator tots for some kind of salad, that’s truly long term pain.

But its Friday and likely by next Tuesday or Wednesday, I’ll know a rough draft of what I should expect for the next few months, other than looking like medical personnel while walking into the grocery store so as to avoid the germs from all the other masked people around me. So, even though I’m not a fan of cliffhangers, at least I don’t have to wait 3-12 months for the next episode or movie or book to find out about the upcoming chapter in my story. I mean come on, preselling a book that isn’t releasing until September??? Why would you do that? It just pisses people off…sorry…tangent.

It’s almost time to shower (again) with some pre-surgery, make you super clean, body wash and find clean comfortable clothes…hmmm…I never did figure out a good top that buttons up…I need to do that too. So, off I go to start my day. For those of you sending thoughts and prayers my way, thank you. Be in touch very soon!

Yesterday’s COVID-19 testing, highly unpleasant. They put what LOOKS like a very small swab up each nostril until it jams into your brain. The lab tech warned me and asked nicely not to pull his hand away from my face, as that apparently had happened.

Drawing blood for the blood tests was also pretty unpleasant as the guy who started was either new or over confident as he took a quick look before sticking me with a needle and then proceeded to move it around…I assume while looking for a vein he thought he’d seen originally. And then did the same again. First on the back of my hand, then my inside elbow area. Then poor Alice (who must have been the head nurse) had to come and do it as he felt bad and I was crying (cause…well…needles).

Then it was on to the EKG, which I’d never done before and was not at all painful, yay! There the nurse called Alice again, not because there was something wrong but to see if there was a better placement so she could get a prettier picture (less jagged line in one section). Alice made the printout slightly better and commented that the other nurse was a perfectionist, which is “good”. I think in her head she was being sarcastic rather than reassuring me.

They also wanted urine for a pregnancy test…I have a pretty large bladder so after a soda and 2 large cups of water and no inclination to pee…Alice to the rescue. The other nurse was starting to talk taking blood for the test instead, when Alice said the vial they needed had already gone to the lab with my original bloodwork done before the EKG, maybe they should just call the lab and make sure they could use that for the test. Sure enough, 3 minutes later, I was on my way out the door.

The results came back before I got home for all the bloodwork taken

Everything fell into the standard range except my white blood cell count, which was slightly elevated (came in at 11.2 vs a range of 4.0-11.0 for normal range). And (to nobody’s surprise) I’m not pregnant.

So, as the word began to spread I thought…there’s no way I can keep up with all the people who want updates…what were my options? Email? Group texts? That all pushes info out to people whether they want it or not, plus there is the opportunity for EVERYONE to get every reply known to man…and who has time for that?

Here I am blogging like any millennial, except I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to make this interesting or worth the effort but I guess we’ll see how it goes.

March 3rd. I had my scheduled mammogram as any good-over-40-year-old should (we won’t talk about when my last one was before this). Something, well two somethings showed up and they reached out to have me come back for a follow up spot mammogram and ultrasound.

March 20th. Due to COVID-19, BJ had come with me to the appointment but they would not let him in with me. He had to wait in the car. I went into another mammogram and then over to the ultrasound. They could find the spots on the ultrasound, barely, but since they could, the responsible thing to do is biopsy them to make sure they were nothing and clip them for reference on future mammograms.

April 6th. The biopsy, which involved needles (plural), happened with the same team that did the original ultrasound. One of the last things the ultrasound tech told me as she was closing up the samples was “it’s sinking, that’s good..cancer floats.” 2 days later, April 8th, my doctor calls me, one sample (from the 10 o’clock location) is just tissue but the other, the one from the 7 o’clock location came back as invasive ductile carcinoma. Ugh, well that sucks.

Thus we continue the many appointments…amidst the shelter-in-place the world is under due to the plague floating around and everyone learning how to work remotely.

Conveniently, the shelter-in-place also has worked in my favor as I was able to get in to see the surgeon just 2 days later. We talked about my biopsy results and what they mean and also the sequence of treatment paths.

April 10th. Meeting the surgeon and the biopsy results:

BJ was able to join me for this appointment (we had a phone back up plan if they said he couldn’t stay). I’ve got a diagnosis of Stage 1A breast cancer, which I think is just about the best option you can hear when dealing with it. Grade 2, which is basically middle of the road. And then we get to the positive/negative part of the diagnosis. Estrogen receptor >95% Strong Positive; Progesterone receptor is <1% Negative; HER2/neu (neu=neutropenia) is +3 Positive; Mib-1/Ki-67 = 35-40%, High

What is all means to me is that I’ll need to take medication for the next several years (at least 5) to lower the estrogen levels in my body since this type of cancer feeds on estrogen. This should help minimize the cancer activity. The HER2/neu being positive is an indicator that the cancer is more likely to spread, so future treatments will be to focus on preventing that spread. The first leg of treatment was to get an MRI and then schedule a lumpectomy and removal of some lymph nodes for biopsy.

April 16th. An MRI was requested and I wasn’t getting the follow up to schedule when expected so when my GP called to check in after the appointment with the surgeon she was able to give me the number to call. When I called the office to schedule the MRI, I got a “we’re not really scheduling appointments right now, we’re in the middle of a pandemic ” (to which I thought “Really? Is THAT why I’ve been working from home for the last 4 weeks? I never realized!!!”) My actual reply was “Well, it sounded like she expected to get it scheduled, even with the pandemic, so I’m just following up.” She went looking for the paperwork and came back with a somewhat tentative “Are you newly diagnosed?” With my affirmative answer, her attitude became a bit apologetic and she confirmed where I was diagnosed out of and explained most people coming through newly diagnosed are already in their system. We got me scheduled for the next Tuesday.

April 21st. MRI, with and without contrast…this involves a needle…just as an FYI. It also involves laying face down for about 30 minutes, which sounds more comfortable than it really is. And it’s very loud. Sadly, we had to redo a 4 minute segment which just added more time.

The results came back quickly and I got a call from the surgeon that afternoon that she was looking at them and would add them to my file so I could review for any questions. Basically, they showed the spot we knew about but nothing else of significance. She also let me know that the office was working on scheduling the surgery.

We got the surgery scheduled, it’s Friday May 8th.

May 2nd. Lead up appointments for this week:

May 5th. Pre-Op appointment with the surgeon to discuss the day of surgery, a breast needle localization (which just sounds bad but is similar to the biopsy but instead of pulling samples, they will place material for the surgeon to use for location). UPDATE: this is worse than the biopsy is, FYI. The numbing medicine through 2 needles is worse and frankly after the numbing went away later in the day, it kinda hurts. I’m looking at it as pre-OP recovery testing. Can I still move? Yes. Can I still work? Yes, but it’s not as much fun. Can I still sleep? Yes, until Baya yells in the morning. So…I’m taking it as practice.

May 6th am. A pre-surgery testing for COVID-19 and bloodwork to be done. That’s this afternoon. There’s a whole story around this because they just called to schedule on Tues May 5th and then tried to tell me that my surgery time had changed on Friday. I called my surgeon just to make sure we were both going to be at the hospital at the same time…my original time stands. I got a call back later in the afternoon reiterating the “change” to the earlier time from the guy who told me it was supposed to be later…