A day to celebrate
Yet again, another Wednesday morning and another appointment at the hospital. Today, before we had even sat down, Kelvin was saying "Good news, good news, good news!". The CT scan is clear, and so there is no cancer spread to my lungs, liver or kidneys.
I had allowed myself to believe this all last week, so have been on a high anyway, so thank goodness I was right to believe!!
I got the chance to ask all of my outstanding questions.
Is it a new primary? Yes, most likely. We had a discussion about how the health professions never use the words 'definitely', 'certainly', 'guaranteed' etc. And Kelvin said never to trust a doctor who did.
Can I have the Oncotype DX test that my friend had? Yes, most likely. This is a post-operative test that can help determine whether chemotherapy will be needed, but only works if your cancer is an early stage and oestrogen position (ER+). We're fairly certain mine will meet the criteria, but until the operation, removal of the cancer and further pathology tests to see if it is also HER2 negative or positive we won't know for sure. But he nodded, and said 'probably'.
Will the lymph nodes be tested during surgery? Yes, the sentinel node biopsy will be done when the surgery happens. Some radioactive dye is injected and the sentinel node identified and removed. If this has cancer cells, further surgery is needed.
Will I have any post-surgery drains? No. Yay!!!!!! Drains are 'orrible. And recovery should just need some paracetamol and a comfortable bra.
Kelvin drew me his apparently infamous diagram of the wire guided wide local excision. Other patients have apparently had theirs framed, so I asked him to sign it. And he did! A wire is inserted using local anaesthetic and ultrasound to guide Kelvin to the cancer, as it is too small for him to otherwise find. He will remove the cancer with a 1mm clearance, and this will be confirmed following pathology tests. If he hasn't got a 1mm margin (which means, at least 1mm all around where no cancer cells are present), he will have another go 3 weeks after the initial surgery.
After this, I'll be going for 3 weeks of radiotherapy (which I expected) at Velindre hospital in Cardiff (a specialist cancer centre), which again, I expected. This is what happened last time. We'll have to think about the logistics of that - last time, I felt perfectly well throughout and could have driven myself, but I'm not sure Greg will let me! But depending when the appointments are, it would play havoc with his work schedule to drive me each day.
Following that, there will be tablets.... what did that mean? I'm already on Tamoxifen. Well, it means we may need to change them to something else. Essentially, there are pre-menopausal medications, and post-menopausal ones which do their best to stop oestrogen-receptive cancers. Tamoxifen is a pre- and post-menopausal one, but the others are post-menopausal only. If Tamoxifen hasn't entirely worked, time to try another. My ovary function has more or less been knocked on the head since the last lot of treatment, so when he said he'd probably have to 'chemically destroy my ovaries', I was not at all worried. I can't remember the last time I had a period - sometime in the last 12 months - but they're few and far between now.
So we're on. December 13th will be the day of surgery. In and out in one day, and - fingers crossed - no need to go back for extra margins or further lymph nodes.
As the lovely Charlotte (BFF) said, a day to celebrate.
I had allowed myself to believe this all last week, so have been on a high anyway, so thank goodness I was right to believe!!
I got the chance to ask all of my outstanding questions.
Is it a new primary? Yes, most likely. We had a discussion about how the health professions never use the words 'definitely', 'certainly', 'guaranteed' etc. And Kelvin said never to trust a doctor who did.
Can I have the Oncotype DX test that my friend had? Yes, most likely. This is a post-operative test that can help determine whether chemotherapy will be needed, but only works if your cancer is an early stage and oestrogen position (ER+). We're fairly certain mine will meet the criteria, but until the operation, removal of the cancer and further pathology tests to see if it is also HER2 negative or positive we won't know for sure. But he nodded, and said 'probably'.
Will the lymph nodes be tested during surgery? Yes, the sentinel node biopsy will be done when the surgery happens. Some radioactive dye is injected and the sentinel node identified and removed. If this has cancer cells, further surgery is needed.
Will I have any post-surgery drains? No. Yay!!!!!! Drains are 'orrible. And recovery should just need some paracetamol and a comfortable bra.
After this, I'll be going for 3 weeks of radiotherapy (which I expected) at Velindre hospital in Cardiff (a specialist cancer centre), which again, I expected. This is what happened last time. We'll have to think about the logistics of that - last time, I felt perfectly well throughout and could have driven myself, but I'm not sure Greg will let me! But depending when the appointments are, it would play havoc with his work schedule to drive me each day.
Following that, there will be tablets.... what did that mean? I'm already on Tamoxifen. Well, it means we may need to change them to something else. Essentially, there are pre-menopausal medications, and post-menopausal ones which do their best to stop oestrogen-receptive cancers. Tamoxifen is a pre- and post-menopausal one, but the others are post-menopausal only. If Tamoxifen hasn't entirely worked, time to try another. My ovary function has more or less been knocked on the head since the last lot of treatment, so when he said he'd probably have to 'chemically destroy my ovaries', I was not at all worried. I can't remember the last time I had a period - sometime in the last 12 months - but they're few and far between now.
So we're on. December 13th will be the day of surgery. In and out in one day, and - fingers crossed - no need to go back for extra margins or further lymph nodes.
As the lovely Charlotte (BFF) said, a day to celebrate.
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