The Start of My New Year

I must have taken a "break" in 2007 concerning my health. I had my MRI last week, met with my oncologist this past Monday, had more blood work done on Tuesday, had a consult with a new plastic surgeon today and will be seeing a breast specialist tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I won't have any appointments on Friday. Phew! My MRI came back negative. Yea!

My visit with my oncologist was very helpful. I am much more knowledgeable now about cancer treatments and cancer lingo. I asked her to run a few test for me, some of them new. As long as my insurance covers them, I'm good to go. I've been on Tamoxifen for a year and a half now. There's a test out to see if I am metabolizing it correctly. This test is fairly new and may not be accurate but I'm willing to give it a try. Five years on a drug is a long time if I am not gaining anything from it but weight and blurry vision! I am also having the CA125 test to see if there's any risk of ovarian cancer since I'm a possible BRCA 1 positive. Back to the Tamoxifen, it can increase your edrimetrious lining. I am getting an ultrasound to track the changes. We also talked in great detail about getting a bilateral and/or reconstruction. A bilateral means NO BREAST feeding. The good news is that I SHOULD be able to have a biological child. She also mentioned the DIEP Flap surgery where they take the fat from your abdominal and attach it to make your breast. It's different from the TRAM Flap because no muscles are cut.
http://www.microsurgeon.org/diep_flap.htm This website gives a detailed description of the procedure.

My visit with the plastic surgeon, possibly one of the best in town, told me he does not perform this procedure. He highly recommends using my own chest muscles and a then an emblem skin to hold in an expander. The whole process will take about 9 months. I'll be hospitalized for one to two nights. I probably will be pretty home bound, no driving for about two weeks. I should feel almost normal by one month. The joy of having to do this all over again. Sigh.

I spoke earlier today to a fellow survivor that also lost her reconstructed breast to an infection. We know of only each other. I know that there are probably hundreds if not thousands of people out there that lost their reconstructed breast but we know only women that have had successful procedures. On the flip side, maybe there is hope for us!

I will be discussing with the breast specialist tomorrow about a possible bilateral. No decisions will be made soon and I still need to check with my good ole insurance to see what they will cover.

So...more to come.