I got some really good news!
But first I'll tell you about my very nervous completely uncomfortable date for my lumpectomy following the 5 months of chemotherapy I just went through. Let me just say this right away - every single day following the very bad day that I was told I had breast cancer has been a big huge learning experience and has gone really really well. I know that doesn't happen for everyone so I'm super grateful that my experience was what it was rather than what it could have been. Not to say that there weren't days that completely sucked - but looking back, I'm thankful for a lot lot lot of things. Here are a few:
1. I live in the USA, and more specifically, Seattle, Washington - a place where the medical community is very very progressive.
2. I was treated at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. That's huge. SCCA is part of a collective that includes Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Children's Hospital and UW Medical Center (a teaching hospital) - and altogether have first rate cancer care and cancer research.
and
3. I was assigned (did not choose, but was miraculously assigned) these oncologists who I am so grateful for:
Dr. Julie Gralow -
Dr. Kristine Calhoun
As I mentioned in past posts, I was given a diagnosis of HER2 Positive breast cancer - which is sort of scary, but these women had a plan and the appropriate treatment in place and we got down to business and did the work.
One part of my chemotherapy included the drug Perjeta - which if you've watched the news lately - has been extraordinary! While my HER2 cancer hadn't had a chance to get anywhere near terminal, I was given Perjeta along with Herceptin as part of my treatment - and I responded very well.
After my chemo was done, I was scheduled for surgery. From the outset, the surgery was planned to be (hopefully) a lumpectomy but it depended on how well I responded to the treatment. By the time I met with Dr. Calhoun we knew the chemo had gone well, and confirmed that a lumpectomy was the agreed protocol - which gave me a lot of relief because the idea of a mastectomy seems a little bit (or a lot) overwhelming. Surgery was planned for September 25th.
My history of surgery in life included getting my tonsils out 20 years ago, so based on that - you know - I was afraid - which seemed pretty normal since in the past 6 months I've been afraid of about everything that's come up for me that has been new. So, on September 25th, no different, afraid but not stopping now.
I had to get a wire localization first - followed by what they call lymph mapping - neither of which anyone should really have done while awake, yet both are done with local numbing - so WIDE AWAKE and not that fun. It's best to just not look at anything they are doing because the first one involves needles and wires, and the second one again with the needles. These little procedures are necessary to make sure the surgeon can find where the "tumor" tissue is or was - so they mark the area with a wire. Then they shoot radioactive isotopes into your breast tissue to drain to the sentinal lymph node - so the surgeon can id which lymph node to take to make sure the cancer really really didnt go to the lymph nodes or beyond. Neither of these procedures hurt, they just freak you out if you think about them too much.
Surgery was right after that. Went perfectly. Lumpectomy done and done. Felt like I was in and out of there super fast, after waiting all morning to get it all going. Not that they weren't doing stuff behind the scenes getting ready, we just had to do a lot of sitting around waiting. In any case, we were relieved that it went so well, then we promptly forgot to stop at the pharmacy on the way out to get the pain meds (we're idiots) - so we had to drive back to the hospital for that. Turned out to be totally unnecessary though - really didn't have any pain at all. Stayed at home healing for a 5 days, then back to normal life stuff and continuing to heal properly.
Here's where the GOOD NEWS comes in. Results of the surgery (pathology of the tissue) concluded that no cancer had every gotten to the lymph nodes. While they suspected that anyway and the biopsy early on indicated that, it was nice to get final reports that it was true. And......the best part.... the tissue where my lump-mass-tumor was showed no cancer at all. Meaning - I've had a "complete response" to treatment (docs words). So, 6 months ago I had cancer, but I don't have cancer anymore I'm happy to report. As Dr. Calhoun put it, I hit a home run. I'm very very thankful and fortunate that my treatment went so well. With my sort of breast cancer and the size of my tumor, it's not often that they see such results, so hot damn!!!
I still have to do the course of radiation to sweep through that area because it could always be possible that there is as little as one cell they can't detect that could go haywire. I'll do that happily. Everyone says if you've been through chemo - radiation is a breeze.
My next step is reconstructive surgery on the 22nd of October (next Wednesday), followed by radiation starting around the first of December. That is the last "new" thing I will do. After that I just continue to get an infusion of herceptin every three weeks until end of next May, and then I will be completely finished with this business. Herceptin doesn't have any side effects so it's easy to tolerate. It's also not a "chemotherapy" but a "biologic."
Anyway, it's been a long year but I've had an outcome that has been really good. I have a lot of love in my heart for all the people at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and along with the Oncologists above, I love love love these two gals below. Denise Bundow is the Nurse Practitioner that works with Dr. Gralow, and I've seen her all along and she's been so great.
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| Denise Bundow |
And this gal below, Kay Tilton was the nurse assigned to me on day one. She is a dolly - I love her too. She helped me through all the chemo and gave me all the good warnings about side effects and what was coming next.
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| Kay Tilton |
The biggest thing is this. I was scared shitless the first time I walked into this building and now I love this place.It's weird to think how many times I drove by this building in all the years I've lived in Seattle and then in one day it turned into my home away from home. And it's good that I like this place, because fortunately for me, I'll be "watched" by these peeps for the next forever.....every 6 months for the next 3 years, and then on after that forever, and that's fine by me.
If you are reading this and you are a woman - please get an annual mammogram. I found my lump myself because of where it was - so it was easy to feel. But a mammogram would have found it too! Get one!! Every year!
