Second Surgery

 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 chemotherapy port in my chest. Which would mean I would need chemotherapy. Which I was really really hoping to avoid. Apparently there is a panel of doctors who meet on Wednesdays called the tumor board. They wanted to put me on the schedule to discuss my treatment options. It was sounding like another surgery would be imminent but I hadn't received official word yet and was told they wouldn't know for sure until the tumor board met to decide what to do. 

Looking back, I wish I would have asked why the patient can't be a part of that meeting. They're discussing treatments that would affect my life and I really should have had a say in all of that. As things progressed, I felt like they basically made decisions for me assuming that they knew what was best for me, which they probably do, but I felt like I didn't really have a voice in any of that. It's true that I could have refused the treatment. But I felt a little upset about how things played out.

Wednesday, March 26

The tumor board met in the morning. I waited anxiously to hear what they had decided to do. I had been told right after my first surgery that some epithelial cells had been found in one lymph node. We didn't know at the time what that meant. If it turned out to be cancerous I was hoping that it would be something that radiation could take care of. Waiting to hear from the tumor board was very nerve-wracking for me. I wanted to know what they were talking about, what options they were discussing and how they would come to choose the best one for me. It was in the afternoon that I first received a text message from the hospital asking me to confirm an appointment. I assumed that it was for Madi, because she had a colonoscopy coming up. As I clicked on it and started filling things out I realized that this was an appointment at the hospital for myself. I stopped, not wanting to check in for a procedure that I had not been informed about yet. After waiting another hour or so, I began to feel confused. So I called the hospital to see if there was a procedure scheduled for me. The nurse confirmed that I was on the schedule for surgery on Friday of that week. 😲🤔😔😡😥

Still.. I hadn't received a phone call from any of the Dr's offices yet. I began to wonder what was going on and why I hadn't been called. I knew that Dr Jensen was headed out of town for spring break, which happened to be that whole next week. 

The next morning, I called Dr Tittensor's office. I was a little upset at having not been contacted about the surgery. The lady who answered the phone knew who I was and said that someone had been trying to get a hold of me. They asked if they could try and patch my phone number into her cell phone and I said absolutely. They patch me into Nancy who is Dr Tittensor's assistant. She said that she had been trying to call me all day yesterday, but the calls weren't going through. She did say that they wanted to put me in for surgery on Friday, which happened to be the next day, as Dr Jensen would be out of town for a week after that. I agreed and felt a little better knowing that they were at least trying to get a hold of me, but still felt bad at how the whole thing had played out. I really felt like a number on a chart rather than a person with the ability to make my own decisions. But I was grateful that they were trying to get me in as quickly as possible to do the revision. 

Friday, March 28th

Here I was again. Really not looking forward to this surgery, I felt like when I looked at myself in the mirror I saw myself almost normal. My scars were healing pretty well and my breasts looked pretty normal. I knew this surgery would remove my nipples and more breast tissue, which made me sad even knowing that I had the expanders in place to create somewhat of a normal breast afterwards. After the surgery I was told that I actually had multiple many tumors all over through the breast tissue. I'm very grateful this was caught early enough to hopefully stop it before it spread too far. But it was very difficult to look at myself in the mirror seeing so much of myself gone now. The expanders they put in my chest really are not comfortable. It makes it look more like I have lumpy potatoes under my skin than breasts.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MRI

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...
Read more

First Surgery

 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 ...
Read more

Chemotherapy 1&2

 Sunday, May 18 I've just finished my second round of chemo. This part of my treatment is probably going to be the most difficult, even though surgery was incredibly hard. I was told that I will have 8 rounds of chemotherapy followed by 15 rounds of radiation, followed by 5 to 10 years of hormone therapy. I'm beginning to see why this is referred to as a marathon not a sprint. Sure wish it would have been a sprint in the surgeries could have been the end. Chemo Remi Aspen's wedding was on April 26th at the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork. It was beautiful and amazing, the weather was gorgeous and she looked so pretty and happy. So many friends and family came to support us. The luncheon was at our stake Center afterwards, organized by Andrews parents. It was really nice! Then her reception was 2 days later at Highland Gardens Reception Center. It was pricey, but so beautiful! Again, so many kind friends and family came to help and support us. I couldn't have do...
Read more