Pathology results
Hi blog fans, and apologies that there haven't been any updates for a while. Mainly because nothing much interesting has been happening. We've had a fairly typical Christmas, eating and drinking too much, seeing family and friends, and lounging about doing not much. Over the break I made two crochet bunny rabbits - and forgot to take pictures of either of them - who have gone to two little girls who much appreciate them. I have also remodeled the middle bedroom, with help from Greg, putting up the shelving, into a sewing room. Everything tidies away nicely for when it is needed as a guest bedroom.
My scar sites have healed well. The plasters on my nipple came off last night, and the scar is almost invisible already. It is a semi-circle around the top edge of the areola, and virtually no indentation can be seen. The area is still a little tender, but otherwise fine. The scar in my armpit is a bit pink, but again, healing well and will be invisible before long. Mr Gomez was happy with what he saw.
But today's main news is that I have been back to clinic for my post-operative pathology results.
The good news is that I don't need to go back into surgery and have any more taken out, they got a good margin.
The other good news is that neither of the lymph nodes they removed are affected, so they don't have to do more surgery to remove any more of those. Phew.
Apparently there is also no vascular invasion (local spread), so that's great too. The lump was apparently 18mm, rather than the 11mm that we'd thought (they try and measure using ultrasound, so it is never going to be exact at that stage).
The main news is a more detailed looked at what is driving this cancer. We already knew it was a Grade 3 (cells quite changed) and oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) cancer, and we were guessing that it was a new primary. That has all been confirmed, and we now also know that it is HER2 positive as well, just like last time. HER2 is a protein that the cancer cells like, and react to, it helps them multiply. That might sound bad, but actually, in some ways it is positive, as at least there is a treatment for it. Herceptin. I had this last time, and it is a year of 3-weekly treatments, given by intravenous drip, in the same way as many chemotherapies. It doesn't have the same side effects as chemo, but it can affect your heart function. It did last time, and I had a pause to let my heart recover, and was put on perindopril - I'm still on it.
OK, so I can deal with having Herceptin again. What I didn't know, and really didn't expect - especially after finding out my lymph nodes are clear - is that Herceptin is never delivered without chemotherapy also. This was a bit of a shock, and I couldn't stop a few tears escaping in the clinic, which made my surgeon feel bad. I know that I need to focus on the positives, but my brain moves fast, and chemo is so disruptive to our lives, and I really would rather not lose all my hair again. In some ways, the first time round it was a bit of an adventure. This time is going to be a drag.
It will be different chemo therapy drugs than last time (4 x FEC-T and 4 x Taxotere), but as yet I don't know what. I don't know how many treatments, or what kinds of drugs, or what the side effects will be. We have an oncologist appointment on Friday this week, so i'll find out more then, but I expect it will start quite quickly.
I'm a bit down, to be honest. I had really convinced myself that the lymph nodes would be clear, I'd have radiotherapy and then be done. I really hadn't thought I'd be having chemo again. I'm so annoyed. Frustrated. I can't quite find the words. Logic and head tells me I have to do this, and i'll get my head around it soon. But heart is sad.
My scar sites have healed well. The plasters on my nipple came off last night, and the scar is almost invisible already. It is a semi-circle around the top edge of the areola, and virtually no indentation can be seen. The area is still a little tender, but otherwise fine. The scar in my armpit is a bit pink, but again, healing well and will be invisible before long. Mr Gomez was happy with what he saw.
But today's main news is that I have been back to clinic for my post-operative pathology results.
The good news is that I don't need to go back into surgery and have any more taken out, they got a good margin.
The other good news is that neither of the lymph nodes they removed are affected, so they don't have to do more surgery to remove any more of those. Phew.
Apparently there is also no vascular invasion (local spread), so that's great too. The lump was apparently 18mm, rather than the 11mm that we'd thought (they try and measure using ultrasound, so it is never going to be exact at that stage).
The main news is a more detailed looked at what is driving this cancer. We already knew it was a Grade 3 (cells quite changed) and oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) cancer, and we were guessing that it was a new primary. That has all been confirmed, and we now also know that it is HER2 positive as well, just like last time. HER2 is a protein that the cancer cells like, and react to, it helps them multiply. That might sound bad, but actually, in some ways it is positive, as at least there is a treatment for it. Herceptin. I had this last time, and it is a year of 3-weekly treatments, given by intravenous drip, in the same way as many chemotherapies. It doesn't have the same side effects as chemo, but it can affect your heart function. It did last time, and I had a pause to let my heart recover, and was put on perindopril - I'm still on it.
OK, so I can deal with having Herceptin again. What I didn't know, and really didn't expect - especially after finding out my lymph nodes are clear - is that Herceptin is never delivered without chemotherapy also. This was a bit of a shock, and I couldn't stop a few tears escaping in the clinic, which made my surgeon feel bad. I know that I need to focus on the positives, but my brain moves fast, and chemo is so disruptive to our lives, and I really would rather not lose all my hair again. In some ways, the first time round it was a bit of an adventure. This time is going to be a drag.
It will be different chemo therapy drugs than last time (4 x FEC-T and 4 x Taxotere), but as yet I don't know what. I don't know how many treatments, or what kinds of drugs, or what the side effects will be. We have an oncologist appointment on Friday this week, so i'll find out more then, but I expect it will start quite quickly.
I'm a bit down, to be honest. I had really convinced myself that the lymph nodes would be clear, I'd have radiotherapy and then be done. I really hadn't thought I'd be having chemo again. I'm so annoyed. Frustrated. I can't quite find the words. Logic and head tells me I have to do this, and i'll get my head around it soon. But heart is sad.
Comments
Post a Comment