10/9/21~My appointment is tomorrow and so it begins. I’m on the edge of everything. Edge of scared, edge of tired, edge of nervous, edge of anger, and edge of happy. I mean the Cardinals did win, I still can be happy about that even though I have cancer right?
There has been so many people reach out with kindness, humor, offers of generosity, and compassion. I feel it, I really do. I’m carrying it with me tomorrow. I’ll wake up in the morning and we’ll do this thing. We expect it to be a long day because they want to do their own mammogram and ultrasound on top of the appointment.
If you haven’t scheduled your check up yet, go ahead and you do that thing too…
10/10/21: The Breast Cancer Center at Siteman feels swanky. Everything is bright. The gowns aren’t ugly. The waiting area for mammograms and ultrasounds has snacks! It is strange to say but I kind of didn’t mind being here. Well done Siteman. If I was doing a Yelp Review of Cancer, Siteman would be getting 5 stars right now.
Mammogram shows that all looks good for lefty. Ultrasound showed that righty is a slightly pissed off gal, probably to the tune of Stage 2 but that is to be determined. It’s estrogen and progesterone positive but unclear HER2. I am scheduled for an MRI on Monday to confirm size and make sure there aren’t any other tumors playing hide and seek in either gal. Good news is that it does NOT appear that it has spread to lymph nodes. They will likely take out a few nodes to be sure when we get to surgery.
I agreed to genetic testing to check for the BRCA gene and also agreed to participate in research. This required a blood draw. That was a bit of an ordeal. My veins are small. I was dehydrated. The best place to get blood out of me tends to be top of my hand and they were wanting 5 vials. We made it through 3 vials before the vein became uncooperative.
More appointments to come before we have a definitive treatment plan but at least we are moving forward. No mentions of only eating vegetables or going red meatless at all today. Some mumble about sugar which I find ironic since that is all the snacks were that they provided.
Overall still feeling confident that all is going to be okay.
