My Day

A busy day today. Jason and I, spent four hours at the hospital sorting out surgery, etc today. The doctor actually couldn't find my lump on his own and asked me to show him exactly where it was. He congratulated me in finding it as he said under a normal examination by a doctor it may have been missed due to it's size or more importantly the size of my boobs.

The next step in my journey has began. I am booked in for surgery on the 24th July. Too far away for my liking but the earliest they can fit me in. Seems there is quite a waiting list for breast cancer, sadly. They only do two to three a day as some like mine will only take 2 to 2.5 hours or a full mastectomy will take up to five or more with reconstructive surgery. I will have my lump and surrounding tissue removed as well as a few lymph nodes and will undergo a sentinel lymph node biopsy and hopefully show that the cancer hasn't spread beyond my breast. At this point that is the scariest thing for me. It is funny but each step has a different thing you worry about. Oh and I will pee blue for a few days lol from the dye they inject me with to find the main lymph node.

I am having a lumpectomy or a partial mastectomy. If all goes well and the lymph nodes come back ok I won't have to have a mastectomy or all my lymph nodes removed. If all is ok it will show the cancer hasn't spread to another part of my body. My biggest fear, but finding the lump quite early I am hoping it will be fine.

Next step after that is five weeks of radiation therapy, five days a week. This is going to be the biggest financial burden for us. My 4 x 4 has a 60 litre tank and only gets 300kms to the tank. We are paying $1.44 a litre here at the moment. Where the treatment will take place is a 120km round trip that I will have to do each day on my own. After radiation I have to undergo chemo. At this point the RECIPE of dosage is unclear depending on how all previous things go. At best I will receive three or four doses spaced apart. After that is done the doctor discussed Tamoxifen to reduce the risk of a second cancer. This will depend on his pathology results even though the first results suggest that the cancer won't respond to the hormone treatment. The doctor is getting my slides to recheck the biopsy in their own lab. Great in my eyes. You can never have too many opinions.

We saw counsellors, the breast nurse, met the surgeon who is a Doctor Tobin lol (Tobin Brothers Funerals), not the best name to be in that line of work (Sorry my sense of humour),and received more literature than I will ever know what to do with but I have already read the entire lot. You can never be too informed. The staff and doctors were lovely. Beyond lovely. I will probably stay in hospital one to two days and go home with a drain, to drain the gunk. A home nurse will come by to make sure all is ok as they like to kick you out as soon as possible.

Today I had blood tests and a chest x-ray. Hope it doesn't show up any more nasty's. All preadmission is done. On admission I will have to venture to a neighbouring hospital to have a radioactive tracking thing injected into me to find my lymph nodes or something to that effect. I will have to reread the booklet to recall exactly what it is.

I just want to thank the lovely AM, Trish and Raylene for their wonderful gifts. I am overwhelmed at the kindness everyone has shown. Also just to say I am so enjoying my gorgeous flowers. They are so so pretty. The roses smell so lovely.