Kim's Cancer Journey

 Tuesday, March 25 I was told that we would get results back from my surgery after a few days, most likely after the weekend since my surgery had been on a Wednesday. A week and a half later, I was still waiting to hear and getting a little anxious. But, I just assumed that no news was good news, and that they would have called me a lot sooner if things hadn't gone well.  I had a post-op appt at Dr Tittensor's office on Tuesday March 25th. I met with her assistant who told me that they were still waiting on a few results, and I'm pretty sure  she told me that they hadn't gotten clear margins around the nipple area and that another surgery would be needed. They had told me in the hospital after my first surgery that they had found lots of mini tumors appx 1-2 mm, all through the breast, and that the 2 tumors they thought were there were actually one, which made it a larger tumor. Closer to 3 cm. I do remember her talking to me about the possibility of inserting a chemoth...

February 27, right after Surgery consultation  Dr Tittensor ordered an MRI for me. At first I wasn't sure why that was needed, so this is what I found: MRI can provide a more detailed view of the breast tissue than mammograms or ultrasounds, allowing doctors to determine the size and location of the tumor, and if it has spread to other areas of the breast or the chest wall. It can also help determine if the cancer is in more than one quadrant of the breast or if the nipple or skin is involved. Ok. I guess that's why. They want to know if there's more there that they couldn't see. So I went for the MRI right after the appointment with Dr Tittensor. This would help to confirm whether we'd made the right call about a double mastectomy. The MRI itself was rather uncomfortable. They hooked me up to an IV because they wanted to use contrast. Then in order to get into the MRI machine, I had to lay on my stomach on a table-like device that had two square holes cut out for e...

 March 12 This was the day. Double mastectomy. Not one that I was looking forward to, but I felt like if I could get through this big surgery, everything else would fall into place. I'm writing this post several weeks later, so I'm having to look back and remember. I do remember feeling that this would be it. Have the surgery, move forward with reconstruction, be back to playing pickleball and going to the gym by May. You didn't quite work out that way though.  The surgery was long. I remember when I first started coming out of the anesthesia, even before I was fully awake the first thing I felt was searing pain, especially on the left side. I had been told that they were going to use a nerve block, which was helping immensely with the pain for most of the patients. Many of them come home without pain meds, just basic ibuprofen and Tylenol. Well... That was not the case for me as the nerve block did not work.  I was given lortab which usually helps me. Over the course of ...

March 4. This was the day I first met the plastic surgeon, Mark Jensen. He and Dr Titensor are in the same building, offices right next to each other and collaborate a lot with their patients. I will say it felt very weird to walk into that office. A lot of pamphlets and flyers on Botox, breast augmentation, a lot of aesthetical things. Knowing I was there for a very different reason was a little humbling.. and I guess I worried what people thought, sitting in the waiting room and seeing me come in. However, this is my journey and I do know that he works with a lot of cancer patients so maybe they were in the same boat, feeling the same feelings I was, and are just like me.  We were first taken back into the room and they had me change into a gown. I guess it is standard protocol in their office to take chest photos each time you go in. I thought that It was weird and slightly uncomfortable at first. But it's nice to have photos to compare, I guess?  Dr Jensen was brief. He wa...

 February 27, 2025 This was the appointment I had been dreading for several weeks now. This is the appointment which would determine the course of my treatment. I'd read a lot on my own, trying to figure out if a lumpectomy or a mastectomy would be the right way to go to get rid of the cancer. Lumpectomy would involve removing the tumor in my breast. Mastectomy would involve removing all of the breast.  We met with Dr Jennifer Tittensor, oncology surgeon who came highly recommended by everyone I spoke to who has had anything to do with breast cancer. Everyone raves about her and told me she is the best and she is the one you want to see. Jim was with me at this appointment. We met with her and I felt comfortable and confident that she would know the right thing to do. My own personal feelings and the fact that my cancer had been very hard to detect led me to suggest that we do a mastectomy, and not just one side but both. We were concerned whether insurance would cover that, a...

 February 24, 2025 The first appointment I had after receiving my cancer news was with my oncologist, Dr Chipman. First of all, it feels really weird saying that I have an oncologist. To me, cancer is always something that's supposed to happen to older people. People who've lived their life, and their body just breaks down because they're old. I know it happens to people of all ages, I guess I just created this stereotype in my own head out of the fear of hopefully preventing it from happening to me.  Jim came with me to this appointment for which I'm very grateful. We sat in the waiting room for a while, waiting for our turn. I remember watching the stream of people that kept coming in, and leaving the office. True to my stereotype, these were people much older than me and sicker than me. Or at least that's what I said in my own mind. Some of them very likely could have been much closer to my age than I wanted to believe. They came in with the ports and the drains,...