Tuesday, August 20, 2013:
Hello everyone,
I hope you are having a nice summer. Wayne and I took a break between Doctor's appointments and took a little road trip. It was nice to get away and will be our last chance to go any place once my radiation gets started. To give you an update on my progress, I have lost all my hair......AGAIN! No one warned me about this. Now, granted, I didn't have much to lose but now I have NONE AT All as of last week. The Oncologist said it was normal and expected due to the anesthesia I was given when I had my surgery. As of today, I can see something that looks like peach fuzz, like the soft hair women have over their lip. I still have a few stiff hairs I didn't lose but I could probably count those. I just want some hair before cold weather gets here or I will freeze. Hahaha! On a good note, I have a great tan on my bald head!
On my last visit with my plastic surgeon, I complained about the stench that was coming from the tape on my right breast, (which was taped over all the cut and stitched areas of the surgery). He told me it was o.k. and to not pull or remove the tape. He said if it begins to come loose I could cut the loose ends. Well in the time between me seeing him again the stink only got worse and the drainage became thicker. As a result the tape was staying very wet and of course began to 'let go'. When it was obvious it would no longer stick to my skin, Wayne and I went to work cutting the loose pieces off. When we did, we found a large open wound where the skin had split open. It was a section about an inch wide and two inches long and it was gross. We were out of town so we had to doctor it ourselves. We did a good job and saw the Doctor on Monday. He removed all the tape, cleaned everything up and explained that the split open area was common and nothing to worry about. He said my immune system is still compromised and I am healing slower than normal. He would not stitch it back up because it would only burst open again. He instructed me on how to take care of the wound and also told me that he did not want me to have any radiation until I was healed up. So, this has put my start time for radiation on hold for at least two weeks if not longer. Once Dr. Kays says I am healed enough and gives me the o.k. to have radiation I will call my radiologist and start the process. The radiologist does not want to do any of the pre-radiation testing and prep until I am released for treatment by Dr. Kays, and is adamant that I must start treatment no later than 8 weeks after my surgery. I also started physical therapy today for my right arm lymph node removal so I won't lose any mobility. Fun, fun, fun!
So, that's all the news up to this point. All is well with me and Wayne and I will update you further next week after my visit with my plastic surgeon.
Have a nice week and thanks for the prayers!
Glenda
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
What a wonderful day!
Monday, August 5, 2013:
Today has been a wonderful day. The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Low humidity, cool with a soft breeze. I was feeling pretty froggy today and decided to wash all the window from the outside. Well, I got it done and feel pretty proud of myself! If my doctor were to read this he would probably ream me out but he doesn't know about my blog! I used both my arms and really don't feel like I have caused myself any harm whatsoever. I was pretty tired when I finished up, though. Hahaha.
Later,
Glenda
Today has been a wonderful day. The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Low humidity, cool with a soft breeze. I was feeling pretty froggy today and decided to wash all the window from the outside. Well, I got it done and feel pretty proud of myself! If my doctor were to read this he would probably ream me out but he doesn't know about my blog! I used both my arms and really don't feel like I have caused myself any harm whatsoever. I was pretty tired when I finished up, though. Hahaha.
Later,
Glenda
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Doctors, Doctors, Doctors!.......
Thursday, August 1, 2013:
Hello Everyone,
I hope you are having a good week. Mine has been great. I got to see all three of my 5 Doctors this week! After all, it's not like I had anything 'pressing' to do. Hahaha. I will get to see my 4th Doctor next week and my 5th Doctor the week after. My, oh my. So, to catch you up on things, my surgery went well and I saw Dr. Kays on Monday. He is the plastic surgeon. He said I was healing wonderfully with very little bruising, no oozing and very little swelling. I still had the drain tube in and I was putting out too much fluid for him to remove it at the time. The drainage had to be less than 20ml per 12 hour period and I was putting out 60ml on Monday. He also put a hold on my physical therapy until a later date as yet to be determined. He did not want to risk me pulling out any stitches. Wednesday I got to see Dr. Papazikos. He will be my radiologist. I will require 6 weeks of radiation going 5 days a week. He explained what he would be doing and the why's and how's. That won't happen until I heal from the surgery which is about 4 more weeks or so. It's all a crap shoot if you ask me, as far as when things will happen. So, I will see him later on in the month. Today, I went to see Dr. Bebb, my surgeon. He was very happy with how things were going with me. I received the pathology results last week and we talked more about that. Bottom line is there was no cancer anywhere in my breast tissue that he removed. He removed 12 lymph nodes because that is all I had in that area. Of the 12 nodes, 6 had cancer. The largest size of cancer found was 3mm. Which is pretty small. He said that the chemo did a great job of getting rid of my cancer and the lymph nodes do not have a very good blood supply going to them and therefore did not get as high a dose of the chemo as the rest of my body. But, the radiation I will be having will be zapping all the places that tiny molecules of the cancer may be hiding. They will be shooting all of my right breast and the area directly above up to my clavicle where more nodes are located. I asked why those lymph nodes could not be removed and he said it would cause extreme morbidity (whatever that may mean). When I go for all the prep things I have to do prior to radiation I will be having another CT scan. I really don't like having those things because of the mass amounts of radiation I get when I have it. On the other hand, I look at all the radiation I will be blasted with and figure, what the heck!? I don't have much choice. The CT scan is just to make sure where all my organs are and they will use it to calculate distances, angles and whatnot for the radiation beams. I am done with Dr. Bebb for 6 months and he will be the one scheduling my mammograms from here on out. After seeing Dr. Bebb, Wayne and I went back to see Dr. Kays. I had only been putting out 20ml of fluid for the past couple of days and I had him remove the drainage tube. I was expecting it to hurt but I didn't feel a thing. I am glad to get that out of me. It was constantly pinching me and was always sore. I now have an open hole in my side that he said would heal on it's own without any stitches.
I have the best husband in the world. Throughout this whole ordeal Wayne has been with me to every doctor's appointment, every treatment and everything in between. He has been chief cook and bottle washer, maid, housekeeper, grocery shopper and anything else I needed. God blessed me when he gave me Wayne! He is a mountain of strength and I love him so much. Thank you, Wayne. Thanks to all my friends and family that call, send messages, cards, flowers and well wishes. I love you dearly.
I won't have much to report for probably a week or two. I go see my Oncologist, Dr. Arb next week and back to see Dr. Kays. Not sure when he will let me start physical therapy. Honestly, I have full range of motion in my right arm and don't think I need it but I will go at least once to see what sort of exercises they want me to do. Maybe they can get rid of my 'bingo arms'!!! Hahahaha! (If you don't know what that is you can google bingo wings)
Later and have a nice weekend.
Glenda
Hello Everyone,
I hope you are having a good week. Mine has been great. I got to see all three of my 5 Doctors this week! After all, it's not like I had anything 'pressing' to do. Hahaha. I will get to see my 4th Doctor next week and my 5th Doctor the week after. My, oh my. So, to catch you up on things, my surgery went well and I saw Dr. Kays on Monday. He is the plastic surgeon. He said I was healing wonderfully with very little bruising, no oozing and very little swelling. I still had the drain tube in and I was putting out too much fluid for him to remove it at the time. The drainage had to be less than 20ml per 12 hour period and I was putting out 60ml on Monday. He also put a hold on my physical therapy until a later date as yet to be determined. He did not want to risk me pulling out any stitches. Wednesday I got to see Dr. Papazikos. He will be my radiologist. I will require 6 weeks of radiation going 5 days a week. He explained what he would be doing and the why's and how's. That won't happen until I heal from the surgery which is about 4 more weeks or so. It's all a crap shoot if you ask me, as far as when things will happen. So, I will see him later on in the month. Today, I went to see Dr. Bebb, my surgeon. He was very happy with how things were going with me. I received the pathology results last week and we talked more about that. Bottom line is there was no cancer anywhere in my breast tissue that he removed. He removed 12 lymph nodes because that is all I had in that area. Of the 12 nodes, 6 had cancer. The largest size of cancer found was 3mm. Which is pretty small. He said that the chemo did a great job of getting rid of my cancer and the lymph nodes do not have a very good blood supply going to them and therefore did not get as high a dose of the chemo as the rest of my body. But, the radiation I will be having will be zapping all the places that tiny molecules of the cancer may be hiding. They will be shooting all of my right breast and the area directly above up to my clavicle where more nodes are located. I asked why those lymph nodes could not be removed and he said it would cause extreme morbidity (whatever that may mean). When I go for all the prep things I have to do prior to radiation I will be having another CT scan. I really don't like having those things because of the mass amounts of radiation I get when I have it. On the other hand, I look at all the radiation I will be blasted with and figure, what the heck!? I don't have much choice. The CT scan is just to make sure where all my organs are and they will use it to calculate distances, angles and whatnot for the radiation beams. I am done with Dr. Bebb for 6 months and he will be the one scheduling my mammograms from here on out. After seeing Dr. Bebb, Wayne and I went back to see Dr. Kays. I had only been putting out 20ml of fluid for the past couple of days and I had him remove the drainage tube. I was expecting it to hurt but I didn't feel a thing. I am glad to get that out of me. It was constantly pinching me and was always sore. I now have an open hole in my side that he said would heal on it's own without any stitches.
I have the best husband in the world. Throughout this whole ordeal Wayne has been with me to every doctor's appointment, every treatment and everything in between. He has been chief cook and bottle washer, maid, housekeeper, grocery shopper and anything else I needed. God blessed me when he gave me Wayne! He is a mountain of strength and I love him so much. Thank you, Wayne. Thanks to all my friends and family that call, send messages, cards, flowers and well wishes. I love you dearly.
I won't have much to report for probably a week or two. I go see my Oncologist, Dr. Arb next week and back to see Dr. Kays. Not sure when he will let me start physical therapy. Honestly, I have full range of motion in my right arm and don't think I need it but I will go at least once to see what sort of exercises they want me to do. Maybe they can get rid of my 'bingo arms'!!! Hahahaha! (If you don't know what that is you can google bingo wings)
Later and have a nice weekend.
Glenda
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