Dr. Carr, revisited.

I saw Dr. Carr on Thursday, the 11th of December. He had already given me the preliminary results, which sounded promising. After he examined me to see how I am healing ("oh, you heal very well"), he made a comment about my previous day's visit to Dr Baillie, the internist. "The Holter monitor was pretty impressive, wasn't it?" Yeah, I guess so - Out of 132,577 recorded beats that day, My heart misfired on 70,627 of them. The technician who did the echo yesterday said, "your heart certainly beats to it's own drummer". Everyone's a comedian these days! Anyway, more about that in a separate post. 

Dr. Carr was not happy that I had not heard from the Cancer Clinic in Victoria yet, so while I sat with him, he called down there to speed things up. As he was describing my case to the oncologist, he summarized my history for her benefit, "Jacqueline Pallard, age 44, right partial mastectomy, T2, blah, blah, blah." He went on after hanging up with her (by the way, my appointment in Victoria is this Tuesday ay 10:30), he explained that he had consulted with the team of fellow surgeons and they are all unanimous is thinking that I will need a mastectomy after all. The pathology report came back saying that the microcalcifications are associated with DCIS - ductal carcinoma in situ. These microcalcifications are scattered throughout the breast. Do I really want the worry of cancer 5 - 10 years down the road after working so hard now to get rid of it? NO. Take it off. And while you're at it, take the other one off, too. I'll get a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction. There is a very good reconstructive surgeon coming to Nanaimo in July who could fix me all up with a nice tummy tuck at the same time.  Dr. Carr commented on how I seem to be such a calm, level-headed person. Perhaps this is true, but I'm thinking, cancer-free and a slim figure. How can this be a bad thing? I am definitely on board for this. He ended the appointment with, I'll see you again toward the end of your chemo.