Things have been moving so fast since the doctors are now “Treating for Cure!” We met with two more incredible doctors over the past two weeks! First was with the surgeon who will remove the cancer.
Patty and I had an appointment with the surgeon on Wednesday, July 21st. She is the kind of woman that you just feel comfortable with the moment you meet her. She’s probably around her 40’s but has a bio that’s a mile long. She has a great bedside manner and had Patty laughing harder than I’ve seen her laugh since this whole nightmare started! She explained that she could “try” to do a lumpectomy but felt a mastectomy would be best to minimize reoccurrence. Patty agreed with her suggestion. She also suggested that we start the breast reconstruction at the same time as the surgery. The doctor explained that once she removed the breast she would biopsy some of the lymph nodes in her breast which would determine what type of post operative treatment she would need… chemo… radiation… hormone therapy or a combination of treatments. She said they’ll biopsy two or three lymph nodes and if they come back positive for cancer they’ll keep biopsying them until they find some that are clear. Once they find the clear ones, they stop. Hey, she’s the doctor. At the end of the appointment, she said if everything works out, she could have the surgery by the end of the following week! She obviously knew the urgency of this situation we were in, which the doctors at the other hospital failed to see! (Hmmm.. do I sound bitter?) It was close to noon and she said: “let me see if I can get a hold of the the reconstruction surgeon and see if he can see you.” She left the room and came back a couple minutes later saying: “he’s just eating his lunch and I told him to put his lunch down and see you. So he’s waiting for you right now!” We thanked her and went downstairs to the reconstruction doctors office. There he was, standing outside in the reception area waiting for us. He took us in and conducted an exam with Patty. He then sat us down and explained how the reconstruction procedure would work. He was very thorough and made us feel very comfortable. He then introduced us to his office manager who put things in motion for the surgery. She coordinated both doctors schedules and whamo… a surgery date of July 29th! We actually had a surgery date! You don’t know how much we’ve wanted this date!
My wife has breast cancer! 