Snowy Day

Happy New Year. Just sitting here watching the snow. Feeling better today and not too itchy. Only issue is I have my old pain back by my gallbladder that was removed in May. The surgeon said that he fixed a small hernia that I had by my belly button. I am now wondering if the belly pain was actually a hernia and I what I am feeling now is the hernia healing. Since my plastic surgeon is on vacation, I will have to ask him exactly where when he gets back. Other than that doing OK today.

Minor Setback

Just as I was starting to feel better, I found out I am allergic to the antibiotic, clindamyacin. I know have a very itchy, full body rash. They switched me to levequin. Hopefully, benedryl will stop the itching. Very bad night sleep with the itching. See if the changes the meds will help today. Breast is healing nicely, with the belly holding steady. The belly is an open wound and we have a visiting nurse coming a few days a week. Hopefully, it will heal soon.
I am by myself this morning as Rob is doing errands.

I am hoping the itching stops soon.

Going home

Going home today...drains are all out...feeling pretty good...get to see Sean...get to take a shower...Rob on his way to pick me up.

Good day

Good day today...moving around good...not too much pain...wish the drains were out...hopefully home by Tuesday. ..miss everyone. ...yucky rain today. ...can't see my nice view.

Finally

Finally out of bed...foley out...getting my own room later...hooray...should get out of here by Tues...can't wait for a real shower.

Another vein

bad veins...another iv done...number 7...only out of bed for 1/2 hour yesterday...still in stepdown unit...i want to go to a regular room already....lucky if i am home by tues...would like visitors.
at least view is nice...

Update

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the support.  I am still not allowed out of bed  and  I am still in the stepdown unit.  at least I got   real food today. I am keeping it short as it is hard to type. I am allowed visitors and phone calls.  You can call NYU room or cell.
Gail

Gail's Surgery

Gail's surgery went well. She was on the table for just under 6 hours. There were no complications. Best of all, the initial pathology of her lymph nodes indicate the cancer has NOT spread. There is a very small chance the full pathology panel will find something the initial one missed. We will have the results of the full panel in around a week.

I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers and positive energy. This has been (and still is) a very difficult time for us and we appreciate the support we are receiving from all of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Rob

Surgery Tomorrow at 7:30am

My surgery is scheduled for 7:30am tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec 22.  I am having it at NYU in Manhattan.  I will be in the hospital for at least 5 days.

I will try to have Rob post an update or when I am feeling better, I will.

Gail

Last Day Before Surgery

I am is going into the city today to look at the tree at Rockefeller Center and have lunch with Rob.  I am also getting the radioactive dye injected into my lymph nodes for tomorrow's surgery at 2pm downtown.

I am almost done packing.  I still have to pack for Sean to sleep at his cousin, Julian and Danny's house.  Rob loaded movies for me on my droid.  I finished all the pillows and made a cuddle pillow for Sean.  He loved it.  He slept with it all night.

I am still waiting to find out the time of the surgery tomorrow.  They should let me know sometime today.
Gail

Snow & Sewing

I got to watch the boys play in the snow.  Sean was so cute.  Daddy was showing him how to make foot prints in the snow and then they played with his friend Tommy.

I am finishing up the breast cancer pillows.  I made 13 of them.  I am going to give away 10 of them.

Gail

Sewing

I am going to sew today.  I bought some fleece and I am going to make myself a breast cancer heart that I can use under my arm after the mastectomy.  I also figured since I had enough fabric, I would make a few more and hand them out to anyone else at the hospital who also has a mastectomy.  I have enough for 13 hearts.

Gail

Last Time

So today I am getting my last manicure/pedicure with getting my cuticles cut.  I found out that after you have a mastectomy you have to be extra careful with getting a cut (cutting cuticles), blood pressure cannot be taken on that arm and among other things.  You have to be careful because that can lead to lymphodema. Blech.

I will enjoy this today.

For more information: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/supportivecare/lymphedema/Patient

Bad Veins

So I had my pre-op testing yesterday.  The nurse had no problems drawing blood, but when I went for the CT scan they needed a big vein which I did not have.  The CT tech had to stick me 4 times until she got a big enough vein for the dye for the scan.  I have bad veins to begin with and she said that they were all small and flat, basically not good for the study.  After 20 minutes, she did finally find something.

Good News!

I am BRCA negative.  This means I do not have the 3 most common genetic mutations in the Ashkenazi jewish line.  This also means we don't know why I got breast cancer so young.  I could still have another genetic mutation, but to find that out it is done with sequencing and we won't find those results out for another 2 weeks.  I am going ahead with a single mastectomy and see what happens with those results later.

Gail

Deciding on Short Hair

I still haven't decided if I am cutting my hair before the surgery or not. I am going to cut it before chemo though. Since I have semi-curly hair, my options are kind of limited to a puff ball haircut.

I found two hairdos that might be ok.

I Have Breast Cancer

I am sorry that some of you are going to find out this way, but I am a little overwhelmed with telling everyone. I figured this way everyone will know what is going on without leaving anyone out.

On October 13, 2009, I went in for my semi-annual checkup with my gynecologist and she found a lump in my left breast. She advised me to get a mammogram and a sonogram. I had done a self exam a few months before and didn’t feel anything, but when I left her office I felt a pea sized lump that was not there before.

On October 28^th, I went in for my mammogram and sonogram. They immediately advised me to schedule a biopsy on not only the one mass that my doctor had found, but on 3 masses (7mm, 8mm and 2.1cm). I was able to schedule the biopsy for the next day.

On October 29^th, I had my core needle biopsy on my left breast. It was not bad at all. They numbed me up pretty well. They biopsied the 3 masses and put a titanium marker in each one so we would know which ones were biopsied already. After the biopsy, I had another mammogram to make sure they got the areas.

On November 1^st, 3 days after my 39^th birthday, I received my positive diagnosis for Infiltrating Well-Differentiated Ductal Carcinoma on all 3 masses. After reading the pathology report, we realized that if you were going to get breast cancer, I had a good one to get. I have a very good outcome of beating it. The pathology report showed that it is:

1. Well-differentiated (Looks the most like normal cells and tends to be slow-growing and less likely to spread to the lymph nodes).

2. All 3 sites showed similar architecture with well formed tubules and focal cribriform architecture with a grade of 1/3

3. Intermediate grade of 2/3

4. Low mitotic rate of 1/4

The combined histologic score is 4/9, which means again that it is slow-growing Grade 1 cancer. I am also estrogen positive, progesterone positive and HER-2/neu negative. This means that they can cut off my estrogen and progesterone to make it stop growing.

On November 2^nd, I had a MRI with dye done on both breasts. They found 2 more masses (5mm and 2.6cm) near the chest wall in the left breast. The right breast was still clear.

On November 19^th, I finally got in to a doctor at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I am not mentioning this doctors name since we decided not to go with them. The doctor offered me a lumpectomy with would take out 2 1/2 inches from the top of my left breast. There would be a noticeable dip in the top and smaller size. She said a mastectomy of the left breast would change my chance of a reoccurrence from 5-10% for the lumpectomy or a 5% chance for the mastectomy over 10-15 years. I would only have a .7% per year over 10-15 years for the right one. To me, that is still a chance of getting it again. So I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

We decided with the Sloan doctor to do a MRI biopsy of the 2 spots on the left breast that had not been biopsied yet, since she did not think I needed a mastectomy. At the time, I couldn’t understand why with the lumpectomy, she was emphasizing the deformity so much. I figured I would get a reconstruction. I was also given an appointment to get tested for the BRCA gene, since I am an Ashkenazi Jew and the defect gene is prevalent in this lineage. I also had an appointment for the MRI on Dec 7 and an appt with the plastic surgeon on Dec 9.

On November 24^th, I had a second with Dr. Axelrod at the NYU Cancer Center. She took one look at me and said that if we did a lumpectomy that I would not have any breast left on the left side. Since I was so young and they do not do reconstructions on lumpectomies, she did not want to leave me so deformed. At the time at the appointment at Sloan, I didn’t understand why the doctor kept emphasizing the deformity. Dr. Axelrod said it is a general practice that reconstruction is not done on lumpectomies. After talking with Dr. Axelrod, she advised us to think about everything over the weekend and to let her know on Monday what we would decide. She wanted to know whatever we decided that she would like an update on me if we didn’t use NYU. She did tell me that she wanted me to speak to another plastic surgeon, Dr. Sloan, for another consultation.

On November 30^th, I had my consultation with Dr. Sloan. He gave me 3 options for reconstruction: implant, LatFlap (back muscle transplanted with implant) or Tram Flap (tummy tuck with transplanting belly fat into a new breast). We decided to go with the TRAM procedure since it was the most real looking and a get a tummy tuck out of the deal. Not too bad.

On December 1^st, we got in to see Dr. Axelrod and made our decision to go with NYU Cancer Center. Overall, we felt more comfortable there. I also cancelled my appointment for the MRI biopsy since I was having the breast removed; I would not need it biopsied prior to the mastectomy.

I had an appointment later that day with the Genetics counselor to test me for the BRCA gene. She explained to me the percentages of reoccurrence of the breast cancer if I was BRCA positive. Rob and I decided that if I was positive that I would have both breasts removed as well as a possibility of my ovaries, since BRCA positive also increases your risk of ovarian cancer by at least 50%.

So here is where I stand now. I am waiting for the BRCA test to come in to decide if it is one or two breats.

My Upcoming appointments:
Dec 15^th - Preop testing at 10am
Dec 15^th - CTScan of the Belly at 1pm to make sure the belly is viable since I had a c-section and 3 laps through my belly button
Dec 16^th – BRCA Gene test results
Dec 21^st - Radioactive dye injected into my lymph nodes to see if the cancer has spread there
Dec 22^nd - SURGERY

The surgery will be 6-8 hours. I will be in the hospital for 5-6 days. (Yes, I will be in the hospital for Christmas. At this point, none of us wanted to wait until January. Both doctors were going on vacation.) This procedure is the longest one both for surgery time, hospitalization and recovery at home because I am using my own tissue for the reconstruction.

I will try to keep this updated, but recovery might get in the way. I will probably be getting chemo and if the lymph nodes are positive, radiation as well. I am still deciding when I will get a short haircut, before the surgery or before the chemo.