Combined Breast Clinic

Wednesday 21 December:

This was interesting.  They get all the different branches who treat you around a table and look at the cases one by one deciding what the best treatment will be for each case.  Then they see each person individually and explain what happens next.  It's a lot of information to take in and can be a little daunting, but you walk out with a plan.

Firstly I saw the Surgical Representative, who told me that all the biopsy results were back and there was no cancer in the lymph node.  WooHoo!!!!  Had to grip the sides of the chair to prevent myself doing a little dance :D

Then came the Oncologist who told me that I would be having 4 Chemo treatments over 12 weeks; one every 21 days.  Sadly this didn't mean I'll have small doses; it means the opposite!  4 mega-doses which would definitely cause my hair to fall out.  She said that each treatment would make me feel worse than the one before so that by the fourth treatment I'd feel really bad.  But what the hey?  It's the last one;I can handle it :D

The Radiotherapist was next.  They've decided that I'll probably require 6 weeks of Radiation and the initial treatment would be part of a 'planning day' and would take about 3 hours.  Oddly enough the treatments only take about half an hour.  The actual radiation takes about a minute but setting up the machine takes the rest of the time.  The 3 hour planning day is setting up the machine and tattooing 4 little black dots on my breast to assist with realignment on subsequent visits.
I always wanted a tattoo.....  but I'd hoped for something a little more artistic! :D

After all of that treatment I'll be put on hormone blocking therapy to prevent me producing the girlie-hormones the cancer likes to feed on.  Anything that even thinks of having another go will find nothing to live on.  Hah!  :D

I'll be monitored for 5 years and then my chances of a re-occurence will be about 50% less than the rest of the population.  Which is fine with me :D

I came out of the clinic to discover someone had accidentally backed into my car... it's ok, she'd left a note and the insurance company waived the excess because I was parked at the time... 
I personally think it was G-d having another poke to see if I would cry - Nice Try!!!

I was able to enjoy Christmas without worrying.  Big thanks to the pathology department who worked so hard to get the results out in time for everyone to get through the holidays with a plan in place.