August 28th Medical Update

Just to make sure everyone knows: I am totally CANCER FREE.

That is the most important thing! Yay!

It’s been 2 and a half weeks since my mastectomy. I had all of my right breast removed, and four lymph nodes on that side.

I asked Dr. Rocco yesterday about my right armpit smelling bad and she said some of her patients do say that happens. She told me to call the physical therapist to ask what underarm product she recommends. Also she reminded me that it takes 90 days to completely heal from this surgery.

My hormone receptor tests came back half-positive. There are two different hormones that they test for and my cancer was positive for one of them. That means that the kind of tumor I had was encouraged to grow by this hormone that by body naturally produces. (I’m sorry, I forget which hormone it is right now.)

I guess the likelihood that I will develop more of this kind of malignant tumor in the future is pretty good…so they want to give me medicine. The medicine is called Tamoxifin, and it interferes with the way my body produces or absorbs hormones. I’m not sure. I'm also not sure I spelled Tamoxofin right. That doesn't look right either.

It has a lot of side effects, and seems to me equivalent to taking poison every day for the rest of my life. At the moment, I know almost nothing about it. I’m going to do some research and talk to an oncologist before I decide what to do.

I talked to my N.P. (the lovely Patty O.) about my recent blood work. I do not and never had Valley Fever. The nodules they saw in my lungs on the chest Xray seem to be scars from previous illnesses. I remember having bronchitis pretty bad a few times as a kid so I guess that makes sense.

My body seems to be healing up pretty well. I’m back to only needing 8-9 hours sleep like a normal person. I’m taking long walks or gentle bike rides every evening. I am able to lift things with both hands if they are not too heavy. I am being easy on myself and not doing too much. I’m drinking lots of fluids and eating well.

My chest only hurts a little bit most of the time. Sometimes I will have sudden deep painful breath-taking sensations that last for up to 3 minutes. I think this must be the nerves healing. I still cannot bear to have any pressure applied to the skin where my breast used to be. I have explored it very delicately with my fingertips and seem to have several patches of skin that are completely numb. The literature suggests these may heal and regain feeling again someday…or not.

I called the place about getting fitted for a prosthesis yesterday. Apparently, for the first 6 weeks they give you fluffy little generic thing you can stuff in your bra until you are healed up enough to get custom fitted for your permanent falsie. I’m not going to bother with the temporary one. I can’t stand to wear a bra for more than an hour or two at a time right now anyway…and I really don’t think I look that bad. If I have a job interview or something, I’ll stick a sock in it.

Dr. R wrote me a prescription for the prosthesis so I can get my insurance payment to cover part of the cost. On the paper, there is a blank space next to the words “duration of use.” In the blank space, she wrote “lifetime.” That just felt weird when I read it. Am I really going to be using this same fake boob when I am 75!?

That’s all I can think of as far as technical updates. Feel free to ask if you have questions.