happy holidays

2008 will be a great year!
i am on my way home shortly- feel good, not really all that sore - which is great!
meeting with oncologists next week - will hopefully have a treatment plan and know more by then.
yay!

couple of good things dr. visits and whatnot

1) plastic surgeon yesterday. timing completely amazing. in car at 10:05 am back home by 10:57am. damn. and half of that time was spent on the queensboro bridge. in to see dr. straight away - "please don't sit, we'll get you right in" they looked at everything -- looks good - took out the drain. totally creepy feeling but glad its gone. fessed up to feeling the "phantom nipple" seriously weird. when one nipple narps so does the other one. we've been going around doing "tune in tokyo, tune in tokyo" all day. anyway - the nurse said that was pretty typical.

2) surgeon visit this morning, not such the in and out. love the surgeon. fo' real. dr. bernik - look her up- chief breast surgeon at st. vincent's as well as mother of three - can you imagine. anyway- she's funny - but i think she thinks we were totally mental today when i asked if i could keep the nipple. that's what happens when you take 3 semi-mature females into a doctor's office and ask them to be serious. obviously, i am opting to deal with trauma with humor. (an impressive healing power in and of its self)
anyway dr.s visit very positive. she couldn't be happier with the progress. everything looks good-and i can travel. yay! off pain meds -(if i want to be...i'm saving them for the ride home) :-)
pathology report:
right axilla sln 1,2,3 - negative for malignancy
right sentinel node - negative
right breast mastectomy-
infiltrating poorly differentiated ductal carcinoma, nos 4X3 cm
- no evidence of in situ component
- no evidence of vascular invasion
- no evidence of perineural invasion
- no evidence of calcification
- uninvolved breast tissue shows fibroadenomatoid mastopathy
- invasive carcinoma is seen at 4mm from posterior fascial margin (additional posterior muscle and fascia part "g" is negative)

(all sounds good to me although i don't know what any of it means)

summary of tumor:
type: ductal, invasive
size, grade: 4CM, III
lymph nodes: 0/4 (i-)(sn)
margins: all free (with additional margins)
stage: pT2 pN0(i)(sn) pMx
stage grouping: stage IIa


so the only thing left to do before the oncology visit is to get the results back from the estrogen and progesterone receptors. to see if i need to be on hormone suppressants. yippee skip.

happy holidays, everyone! going to knoxville tomorrow - by car- fun fun! will hopefully see some of you over the holidays :-)

safe travels to all that are!!

ny snow day

4 days out and i can't believe it is only 9 days til christmas. i hope to be up for travel-- we'll see. i am very sore today but functioning. think i overexerted yesterday so i am resting up and believe me today is the perfect day for it as it looks miserable from the window :-(
the good news is that the david cassidy story is on vh1 so, really why would anyone want to go outside anyway?

back home

yay~
i am home - tired but glad to be in my own bed.
starting the netflix queue :-)

interesting things of note:
- on vicadin (every six hours- not frequent enough)
- TMI warning: my fluids are low which is good -- means i can take the drain out sooner
- the exercises HURT - which again i think is good but dang!

all that i can think of that is of note-- will update shortly - just time for a little nappage.

Surgery Successful

Hello everyone. Cary here.

Just filling everyone in on what was an unbelievably long day. I cannot speak for Nicole but I am exhausted and relieved and glad that this first awful/intense milestone is behind her. I just saw her in her room and she is quite tired but still, through the haze of trauma and anesthesia, has her spunky wits about her (that is to say, she gave me a miniature super-low "high" five).

What you all care about reading:

The surgery was very successful..and...her lymph nodes are clear!

There is some 1% chance or something there could be something up with her nodes, but we won't know that until post-biopsy. But it is very unlikely that the outcome will change.

So there you go. She seems to be in good spirits, as much as one can be, and my understanding of the surgery is very positive.

No idea yet on when she will be released exactly, but the doctor said a day or two of recovery, depending on how she does.

More later, I'm sure.

hospital tomorrow

so a few things to get out of the way and then on to the details of tomorrow:
1) thuderdome - holy crap. WE WON!!!! again holy crap. it was an ass kicker but actually a very rewarding experience all things considered



2) school is freaking over (for a month) oddly enough I have so much school reading to catch up on that i will be plenty busy in recovery (thanks monte) :-)
3) everyone in the fam is up (dad is on a flight right now)
4) cary got me the the riff tracks of star wars (hell yeah)

so now to tomorrow:
9 am @ hospital for admittance
10:00 so radioactive dye goes into my bloodstream to track if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes
11-12:15 awkward conversation in the waiting room before preop
12:30 preop to meet the surgeon and plastic surgeon and anesthesiologist
2:00 surgery
6:00 surgery over (hopefully)
7:00 out of recovery
7:30 in a room (that might be too soon)

The suregery is going to be mastectomy with some reconstruction. I am going implants and will have less recovery time - yay! I can always get the tram flap later if I feel it ness. i am having a syntinal(sp) lobe biopsy and if it is negative nothing more if it positive they will remove the lobes that are affected (remember the radioactive shot I had earlier?) having some inflatable thing put in that i will get inflated over the next few months -- fun fun. then there is the drain -- yay, the drain. will have to drain for the next week. and of course i will be doped up so its really neither here nor there. i guess this the last post i do before surgery but I will see if cary will post the surgery results.

decision

all of you know how good at making those i am.
here's the deal:
I went to the plastic surgeon today (again that suzy rocks!) to talk about options for reconstruction. here are my options

Implant surgery and tram flap surgery -- implant is pretty much what you think it is -- saline or silicone-- and tram flap is where they take tissue from your abdomen and graft it in your breast (yes, please)

here are the pros and cons:
pros to implants - can change size later if needed, can have multiple implant surgeries, shorter recovery time, less scarring
cons to implant - not natural tissue, risk of leakage (albeit low), not natural looking, have to stretch existing skin to make it (stretch marks)

pros to tram flap - natural tissue, doesn't need to be stretched, free tummy tuck, looks, feels natural
cons to tram flap - more invasive surgery, longer recovery time, 2 incisions, more scarring, more pain, more hospital time, more care, maintenance, might miss first classes in january, no travel over the holidays, can not have multiple tram flaps, can not go back.

right now i am leaning towards implants -- which i NEVER in a million years would have ever thought I would have implants. just call me pamela anderson! :-)

oh and also I am joining the gilda's club in nyc:
http://www.gildasclubnyc.org/Giving/Donate.html
(if you are looking for a charity for the holiday donation) :-)

in other news -- 4 days til thunderdome and 8 days til surgery.
(i really can't wait for either one to be over - they are carrying equal weight)