Big Day

Probably another shorter post but I wanted to give an update.

 I worked from home a bit this a.m. and it was so good to talk to some of my co-workers and feel like I might be somewhat useful to them although they would never tell me otherwise. I even got to see a few of them as I went to the hospital to see my Mom and then had an appointment with my GP afterwards. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Mom was admitted to hospital last night, her white blood cell count is high and her oxygen saturation levels are low, they have her on isolation precautions and feel it could very well be C. Difficile. I made some calls regarding her this a.m. before venturing out as well as calling my surgeon's office and 'confronting' his secretary again. Not a big confrontation. I reminded her that I had an appointment with my family doctor this afternoon and asked if my results were back. She looked them up and said they were so I asked if she would fax them over. She agreed and then she said we should probably set up a postop appointment with the surgeon. What a novel idea (sorry for the sarcasm). I told her that we were planning a trip early August so it would need to be before then, she accommodated :) I also asked if she could forward the results to the cancer center so they could make their appointments as needed. Once again, she agreed - only adding that she would run them by another surgeon to ensure he agreed with this. Big progress in one phone call.

Next milestone was to drive myself over to the hospital site - first time driving since the surgery and I think everyone else on the road was safe in spite of me. I visited Mom and I think that helped, reassured her a little and got a list of things she would like me to pick up for her, I guess she was being optimistic when she went, thinking she would be returning home quickly.

I was a little nervous going to the family doctor but it went quite well. The results hadn't been faxed to her  but she was able to obtain them and things aren't looking that bad. I am considered Stage 2. I also know why my right arm has been so sore. The IDC (invasive duct all carcinoma) component was about 2 cm. They removed 27 lymph nodes. Of those 27, two were positive for macrometastases. There was also 7 cm of DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ). They feel they were able to get good margins on the tumor areas and the pathology agreed with what they found on the biopsies. The scans showed no evidence of distant metastasis which is wonderful! I did take a little exception to the note on the pathology report to the effect that the outward appearance of the breast tissue submitted was unremarkable - excuse me!!!

Take care