Meeting the female oncologist

On Tuesday, my husband and I drove to Swedish Hospital in Seattle to meet with a female oncologist, Dr. E., for a second opinion. In a weird way, I was really looking forward to the appointment. I suppose it's because I felt disillusioned with the male oncologist in my hometown and I was hoping for someone I could really click with. I wasn't disappointed. Dr. E. seemed very gentle and thoughtful. Talking to her was like talking to a sister. She did an exam, which the male oncologist didn't do, so that surprised me (in a pleasant way, since I felt she was being very thorough). She explained a few more things to me that Dr. J. (the male oncologist) didn’t go into, but basically ended up making the same recommendation for chemo treatment as he did (although she did give me an option, but it wouldn’t yield as high a prevention result, so I passed it up).

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Flexibility is the name of the game

Well, it's been a week since I last posted and I don't have much news because I had to RE-SCHEDULE MY SURGERY yesterday due to coming down with "the bug" that was passed on to me from my daughter and husband (not that I'm blaming anyone, mind you). Although I was bummed out to have to postpone the surgery, I am relieved that I don't have to recuperate from a bad cold and surgery at the same time. My new surgery date has been set for Monday, October 6th. Just in time for my daughter's 18th birthday (October 8th) and my 52nd birthday on October 11th. I hope I'm in the mood for celebrating by the end of that week. :~) My next "cancer" appointment is Tuesday, September 30th at Swedish Hospital. I will meet with a female oncologist for a second opinion. I fully expect her to recommend chemo (I've been reading up on my stats). I admit that I probably have unrealistically high expectations that I will "click" with her better than the male oncologist in Mount Vernon.

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A whole 'nother plan

The U.S. stock market and I have something in common: something new happens every day. Things have been changing so rapidly from day to day that I can barely keep my feet on the ground. Even as I write this latest entry, I wonder if I should just wait and tell the story a month from now. It might be a completely new plan tomorrow. I read the last couple of weeks' entries and was amazed at how everything has so rapidly gone from one treatment plan to an entirely different one. One thing I'm learning is that you've got to be FLEXIBLE when dealing with this whole cancer thing. I mean, ridiculousl y FLEXIBLE. It was only last week (seems like a month ago) that I was visiting Swedish Hospital about an alternative radiation treatment. Slightly over a week later and radiation is out the window for months and I'm looking at chemo and more surgery.

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A double whammy

While I was still reeling from my Thursday radiation oncology appointment and being told that I would probably need chemo, I had another blow the next day (Friday). My cell phone rang while I was sitting at my computer at the school district office. When I answered it, I was surprised to hear the voice of Dr. Astrid Morris, the radiation oncologist I'd met earlier in the week at Swedish Hospital. She was calling to tell me that the Swedish pathologists had gone over the reports sent to them by my Mount Vernon doctors. She said that the margins around my tumor were NOT 2mm (as had been reported), but more like 1.5mm. She said that 2mm is the absolute minimum required. At first, I wasn't quite sure what she was telling me. I thought that she was telling me that because of the difference, I wouldn't be qualified for the Mammosite procedure. So I told her that I'd already decided against the Mammosite treatment. She told me, "No, I'm saying that you can't go forward with chemo or radiation or ANYTHING until you have re-excision surgery to get bigger margins. There is too high a chance of recurrence with these kind of margins. We usually like to see 5mm margins."

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All bets are off

I'm writing this a few hours after seeing Dr. K., the oncology radiologist in Mount Vernon. I liked him and felt comforted by the fact that he had reviewed my chart and all of my background info before I came to see him (something I don't think Dr. J., the oncologist, had done). However, I'm feeling fairly devastated right now. Apparently, the results of my Oncotype DX test came in just last night (the $5,000 test that predicts risk of recurrence). Dr. K. asked me if Dr. J. (the oncologist) had gone over the test results with me yet. I said, "No, I've been calling to get the results, but had been told they weren't in yet." So he informed me that my test score was a "27," which is far higher than I had anticipated. What it means is that I have an 18% risk of distant recurrence (metasticized cancer) over the next 10 years. This percentage falls within the "intermediate" range and close to the top of it at that. Women with scores of 31 and higher are almost always given chemotherapy.

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The Swedes have it

My appointment at Swedish Hospital in Seattle was re-scheduled to Monday, September 8th. I couldn't believe that I was actually excited about going to another doctor's appointment! But I got up in the morning feeling excited that I was going to the mecca of cancer research and hopeful that the Mammosite therapy would work for me. My husband took the day off work to accompany me to my 10:45 a.m. appointment. I was scheduled to meet with Dr. Astrid Morris, a radiation oncologist, and then Dr. James Hanson, a breast surgeon. I had already picked up copies of my MRI films and mammograms to hand off to them when I arrived. We arrived at Swedish over an hour early (we had left plenty early to beat Seattle's morning traffic) and found a place nearby in the huge parking garage.

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