Nothing has changed, but I definitely feel better today
after meeting with my Medical Oncologist.
She’s very focused and seems to be very knowledgeable. Everything I’ve learned about her has
been positive.
First comes the surgery. I’ll have a mastectomy – but can’t
even do the scheduling for that until next week.
Then comes the chemotherapy.
Preparation for that begins next week with an Echocardiogram. The following week I have a PET scan to see
if there’s been any detectable spread of the cancer. The week after that I meet with the Medical
Oncologist (MO) again to plan the chemo. Because my cancer is triple-negative,
she needs to do some work to decide which drugs will work best. I expect (hope) that I’ll have had the
surgery before my next appointment with the MO.
I’ll also have a consultation visit with a Radiation
Oncologist next week even though that therapy won’t begin until I’m done with
chemo.
I’ll also be meeting with a genetic counselor because of the
extensive history of cancer in my family.
At my age, I don’t expect to get any personal benefit from this
counseling, but I do expect to acquire information that will be valuable to my
kids.
Just getting the process started has a positive effect on my
frame of mind. I may have mentioned
before that I’m not good at waiting. In
my ideal world, I’d have the surgery tomorrow and then get started on the chemo
after a few days of healing.
I’m not looking forward to chemo. I expect it to be quite
difficult. But I’ve always said that I
can put up with anything as long as I know it is temporary. This will be my opportunity to see if I can
really pull that off.
In the meantime, I have a schedule of appointments which
means that the wheels are finally turning.
Forward progress!!!
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