The case of the migrating breast

After a morning of cleaning, I looked down to see my chest with two mounds to the left and nothing to the right. The kids thought it was hilarious. It did look pretty funny. The only solution to this problem that I can see is that I refrain from clean for the next 6 months. I hate to go through with it, but what else can I do?

I am now two and a half weeks post surgery and feel completely fine. My staples are out (all 25 of them), all the steri-strips have come off, I can shower and sleep on my stomach. I am adjusting to my new look, which I'm not going to get too cozy with, since I have decided on reconstruction.

I saw the surgeon on the 22 of June for my post surgery check-up. He was his usual friendly, professional self, but he didn't take long to let me know some interesting news. The pathology report showed a second tumour. It was only 7 mm in length, but still I wondered how it could have been missed in the mammogram I had at the beginning of May, and what was it doing still there after chemo? Dr. Carr figured that the chemo kept it from growing. Everything else looked good.

The Monday after that visit, I went to Victoria to see the medical oncologist and the radiation oncologist. The med. onc. thought that I would not need radiation, but the rad. onc. offered me radiation based on three things: The original tumour was high grade, the finding of the second tumour, and the original tumour had some vascular involvement. I wasn't aware of the vascular involvement, but when I looked at the pathology report, there it was. What this means is that although I had no lymph node involvement, because there was vascular involvement, it's as if I had 3 affected lymph nodes. Eesh - that did not make me happy to find this out. So, Dr. Truong, the radiation oncologist offered me radiation based on all of this. She explained that I was on the border, and certainly did not need it. Without radiation, I have a 20% chance of recurrence. That is way too high a number for me, so I'm going to do radiation. I'll wait until the summer vacation s over, and have scheduled to start on the 9th of Septmebr. It runs for 28 sessions, Monday to Friday, in Victoria (a two hour commute). I'm not sure how I will do this drive - I might make use of the "Wheels for Wellness" van. I'm not sure.

I left the Cancer Clinic with my Tamoxifen tablets that I will be taking for the next 5 years. I'm not sure of the numbers, but radiation will cut my reccurance by half and Tamoxifen will cut it in half again. That's a much better number for me to deal with.

This evening, we are leaving on out much anticipated camping trip. The girls and I will be away for 5 weeks. Norm will stay behind to work and Lucas will be skating all summer. They will join us on the weekends. The beach that I have pictured while I sat in my chemo chair is now about three hours away. At last. If anyone wants to come for a visit, here's where we are.

Happy summer everyone.