I had 2 appointments today back to back. Firstly was with my oncologist, but she was away so this was with her secretary I am assuming? As I was starting a new chemotherapy drug, this was just a catch-up to see what side effects I was having on the chemo at the moment, and if I needed to have my chemotherapy amended or any additional medication to help me cope.
Now, I do have a list of ailments from the treatment that I explained to the Doctor, but all of them that I have are manageable. Some of them I have to take additional medication, and some of them I just deal with. Yes, I get very tired a lot of the time, but I can rest and then be back up on my feet. I consider myself one of the very lucky ones who has not had to be in and out of the hospital due to not coping with the drugs. Due to this, my chat with the Dr was pretty brief. She was happy that I was coping well with the treatment well and as long as my blood came back okay on Friday morning, I was all cleared for starting the new chemotherapy.
Next up was meeting my surgeon in Poole, Dr. E. I was called into an examination room and was met with another nurse as we waited for the Dr to finish in the other room. When she came in, immediately she said that I looked well, and asked how I was coping with all the chemotherapy. She seemed quite shocked at how alert and positive I was, however, she did explain that when they have meetings about each patient, they have all said how upbeat, loud, and positive I am. That made me feel nice knowing that they also believed I was coping well! 🙂
She asked if she could examine me, to which I agreed. She could also feel that that tumor had shrunk, but she explained it had shrunk to 19mm, not 13mm to which I questioned. The Ultrasound showed 13mm, but the mammogram showed 19mm, so they will go with the bigger of the images at this time. The great news – they both showed a shrink in the tumor.
We then moved on to discussing different options for surgery. I had explained that I had spoken to Southampton Genetics Team and was most interested in double mastectomy with the immediate Diep Flap surgery and that they had recommended me to speak to the surgeons at Salisbury. Dr. E looked a bit confused because I am a Poole patient, not a Southampton patient and they have not examined me, and therefore shouldn’t be being referred to Salisbury. So, we started the conversation from scratch.
Dr. E did explain that the most important thing right now is removing the cancerI curremtly currently have, rather than removing the other tissue for something that may or may not happen in 5 years. So she said if I hadn’t made up my mind, I could have a lumpetomylumpectomy to remove the tumour, then have radiotherapy, and then come back in 6 months later and have reconstruction. I explained that I am more scared of radiotherapy than I am of chemo, ( not 100% sure why probably just what I have seen and heard with recovery), so if I can avoid that I will!
After a while of discussing different options, we had concluded that the double mastectomy with immediate Diep Flap reconstruction would be the best option for me anyway. With my size of breasts, she didn’t think that implant only would be able to give me back what I currently have at the moment. She also explained that because I have got a belly ( she used nicer words, but, because I am fatter than I should be, no shit, have you seen what steroids do to you! Ha!) there is enough tissue to perform the Diep Flap and I could have the same size if not bigger breasts from the surgery. Think I will stick to what I have ( more than a handful is a waste right?)
Dr. E explained to me that if I go ahead with the Diep Flap, I would be referred to Portsmouth for the operation, and they could do the surgery lose 4-8 weels of me finishing my chemotherapy. Also, with Portsmouth, my BMI needs to be below 32, NOT 30, which means iI still have some weight to loose, but it will not be as much. She also explained that because I am an ex-smoker ( I only quit when I was diagnosed in Decmeber)December that I am at a higher risk of the surgery not taking ccompletelyompletly, but she still believes this is my best option.
So the next steps for me are to come back on the 31st March to go through some post-op pictures of the different surgeries, and if I am 100% sure I want the Diep Flap, then Dr. E will refer me over to Portsmouth so I can hopefully meet with the surgeons before I even finish Chemo.
Now I just need to lose the weight to make sure I can go ahead with the surgery I want while going through these new chemotherapy drugs I start on Friday!
Let’s get it done!!